Report - Dadipark, Belgium May '12

[mookster]

This was the second site on mine and Flub's roadtrip after finding HH2 sealed and with many people working around the outside.

History shamelessly stolen from Lolz's report last year

Dadipark or Dadizelepark as it was originally known is the oldest amusement park in Europe, dating back to the 1950s. Dadizele, at that time, was already a tourist destination as many people went there on pilgrimage. Over time the park evolved from a playground for the children of visitors to The Basilica of Our Lady of Dadizele. The park was very different from your average theme park instead of focusing on large modern attractions, it was rather accessible and affordable mainly for small children. It boasted an 800m long suspension bridge, said to be the longest in europe.

The site had a poor accident history and in 2000 a 9-year-old boy lost his arm in one of the attractions, the Nautic Jet. This accident was the latest in a series of incidents, but also the most horrific accident. More and more people started to complain about safety and less and less people visited the park. In 2002, it was announced that the park would be closed for one year for renovation, but the park has not reopened since. Since 2004, several companies expressed interest in buying the park and turning it into a modern park with more modern attractions like a lazy river and an events centre. Unfortunately it is becoming increasingly difficult to attract investors.

This was a proper surreal one, not just because of the amusement park factor but because when we turned up there was a large amount of activity in the car park, a couple of ambulance bus things, lots of old people wandering around and a few younger ones, we enter the site in plain view of them and it turns out half of them are wandering around the site as well, up the big aerial walkways, in the rolling drums and having a jolly old time! It's easy to see why the park closed though, the place is a death trap.

More here Dadipark