Rainbow Rampage is a seven-day motor rally scheduled to start here in Seattle on Saturday, Sept. 27, 2008 and wind its way over mountains and past beaches and deserts to reach San-Francisco on Friday, Oct. 3, 2008. Along the way, participants will have plenty of chances to party in the evenings and socialize during sight-seeing stops along the way.
[ed note: Date corrected 3/20. Organizers changed schedule to a week later to match LoveFest in SF.]
Full details will be revealed, organizers promise, in "complete road book" that each participant will receive before the rally starts.
The entry fee for the rally is listed on the site as €499 per person until April 15 and €599 per person after that date. (That's about $788 USD and $946 at today's exchange rates, according to Google's converter.) The fee includes entry to all parties; a complete road book; maps; and one night in a luxury hotel in San Francisco.
While the event appears to be still in the early planning stages -- organizers are seeking sponsors, endorsements, and beneficiaries -- it's being touted on the event webpage as
More than a road trip, the Rainbow Rampage is a fabulous expression of spirit. We welcome participants of every color and stripe to represent the full spectrum of Gay identities, personalities and style.
Guaranteed to be both a spectacle and a great time we will be visible in ways that no local event can be.
The US rally is one of two being planned by the event's producer, Chennai Event Management Service (CEMS). The other will take rallyers from London to Budapest, Hungary. And, that one sounds more exotic to us, but with the ever-shrinking foreign exchange value of the USD, it would also be another kind of "ex-" word for Americans: expensive.
But the west coast trip appears to have its own exotic qualities. Although the exact route won't be revealed until July or August, the general route shown on the Rampage site indicates that rallyists will take an scenic route generally far from I-5 (or "the I-5" for Californians) with stops along the way at Crater Lake, South Lake Tahoe, Yosemite, Las Vegas, Joshua Tree National Park, and (yes) Los Angeles before heading north to reach the terminus in San Francisco.
Guy Zucker, one of the event's organizers for CEMS, tells us by email that participants who can't manage the full rally may enter and leave the route at different stages, "but we do not encourage it as we want participants to be involved at all stages."
CEMS is a production company that lists on its website addresses in India and Hungary.
The company offers this history of its events -- most of them automobile-focused:
Growing organically out of a professional commitment to business development and the good luck of being at the right places at the right times we started pioneering the first Autorickshaw Challenge in 2006.
Today's current two events; the Mumbai XPress and Classic Autorickshaw Challenges, are yearly institutions with a loyal following in major media, imitators and participants who chose to return and again. When not organizing awesome motor sports in exotic locations CEMS takes that same sense of adventure and advanced detail to parties, conferences and websites.
More recently we have organized the first Bus Number 7 project that saw the iconic commuter bus of Budapest transformed into a fully functional hostel on wheels traveling 16,000KM into the heart of Africa and back in order to further cultural exchange and charity efforts.
Building on our success we're expanding with the Caucasian Challenge: an epic motor tour from Budapest, Hungary to Yerevan in Armenia. Rainbow Rampage: A stunning 7 day motor rally from Brighton to Budapest and from Seattle to San Francisco. YourCarInBudapest.com (coming soon): complete auto services allowing anyone to purchase, customize or sell vehicles from anywhere online.
"We organize events for multiple communities and let's face it there is not much out there for the gay community and most of them are local," Zucker said by email, "and here simply -- we are taking it on the road."
He said the main requirement (once an entry fee is paid) for participants will to "To Enjoy the ride! We will have a few challenges a long the way -- a bit of a competitive edge to this great event."
He said that they are expecting as many as 40 teams to participate in the US rally. Participants will be asked to attach a Rainbow Rampage banner of some sort to the car that will, no doubt, include logos of the event's eventual sponsors. But, otherwise imagination (and the vagaries of the wind) can be your guide as your travel down the road. "We encourage participants to decorate their cars," Zucker said. That includes soliciting team sponsors and displaying their logos.
In other words, even if you don't know what NASCAR is, you're free to make your own vehicle look like one of theirs, but with more taste, of course.
Zucker said that CEMS welcomes support from local gay groups along the way. "Any kind of support will be great -- especially reaching to the gay community in each point along the way.
"Mostly awareness that this event is taking place."
The company is also seeking sponsors for the US event. Contact them through the CEMS website.