Z archiwum: Energylandia - Invasion of roller coasters

It comes. It measures 30 meters, which is as high as the tenth floor of a skyscraper. Its cars reach the velocity of up to 80 km/h. A person using the device is to feel as if he or she were making extreme turns with their F-16 fighter jet over a 500 meter-long track. A third roller coaster this year is being assembled in the Energylandia amusement park. It is a European record. The park was created only last year, although most of the facilities have been launched this season.

One can find twin roller coasters of this sort in the United Kingdom in Blackpool Pleasure Beach as well as in Heide Park in Germany. The Energus roller coaster has been available for use since 1 May this year. With its moderate g-force levels, this ride is aimed at families. Each train contains 8 cars carrying 16 people at nearly 50 km/h at an altitude of 13 meters. A single ride is 335 meters long. A month later, at the beginning of June, a second scenic railway was opened, named the Dragon Roller Coaster. It is a so-called „suspended” or „inverted” roller coaster. The concept here is that the roller coaster features chassis above the riders' heads while the train is suspended under the track so that their legs are dangling, which greatly intensifies the experience. The device is 20 meters high whereas the track itself measures 453 meters in length with its cars going at a maximum speed of 75 km/h.

The first roller coaster called the Viking, thematically related to the ancient Scandinavian world, was launched in July 2014, along with the opening of the park itself. It consists of a train of five cars for four people each that not only moves along a 13 meter-high construction that is almost 320 meters long, but the cars also revolve around their own axis. All the roller coasters to be found in Energylandia in this year are the product of a Dutch-based company Vekoma.

The road to the creation of the first modern amusement park in Poland was neither easy nor short. Attempts at such a venture have been made for almost two decades in this country with a population of 38,5 million. None of them proved to be fruitful, however. Among those entrepreneurs was even the King of Pop Michael Jackson who wanted to open his park here at the end of the 90s, but political games started and the project never came to fruition. Then came other investors, among others from Turkey and the Netherlands, yet each of these projects resulted in bankruptcy. And now someone has finally pulled it off. The small city of Zator located to the south of Poland is the home of Energylandia amusement park and it appears that it is not going to run out of steam for its expansion.

The development of Energylandia was characterized by a lack of promotion or puffing announcements, taking a backseat to another struggle that attracted the attention of the media, which ended up being a failure for now. The plans for the creation of two big amusement parks in the vicinity of Warsaw, the Polish capital, were announced in 2010 and 2011. One with Dutch capital was to be named the Adventure World Warsaw whereas the other was masterminded by Moshe Greidinger, an investor from Israel who owns the Cinemacity cinema network. The Adventure World Warsaw project ultimately bankrupted and Park of Poland has not yet begun any investments. At the same time, a park the Polish amusement industry can be proud of has appeared on the radar in a town that is unknown to most Polish people. It is named Zator and is situated roughly halfway between two major spots on the Polish map- Oswiecim where Auschwitz, a WWII Nazi concentration camp, was located, and Wadowice where Pope John Paul II was born. A few years earlier dinosaur and miniature parks had been established both in Zator and in nearby Inwald (a village near Wadowice). In this unexpected way, the region has become a Polish Orlando in terms of amusement parks.

Within the park area measuring 26 hectares, 57 different sorts of attractions and facilities can be found. 27 of these are major ones which have been previously unknown to the Polish audience. The park comprises three sectors, namely the kids, family and extreme areas that cater to the needs of children, families and young people as well. Under a single ticket, one may enter all the zones without restriction. All these attractions and devices are new with TÜV European safety certificates. Energylandia purchased the biggest number of the facilities from Vekoma, SBF Visa and Fabbri Group.

What Michael Jackson, Moshe Greidinger, the Dutch and other, largely foreign investors have never managed to do has been accomplished by Marek Goczal, a 39-year old local businessman who owns two major discos as well as an energy drink brand and who is relatively unknown in the industry. According to his own words, the creation of an amusement park was his dream that has just come true. He was emboldened to develop Energylandia by his own children who saw amusement parks in other countries in Europe and asked why there was not such a park in Poland. The investment cost originally amounted to as much as 75,5 million zlotych (which equals more than 18,5 million euros). The owner of the park made use of a very considerable subsidy from the European Union and also put his own funds into the venture. In addition, the Energy 2000 company is the recipient of 8 057 452 euros within the framework of a new subsidy program “Revolution in the amusement industry - physical sensations in virtual reality”. The assigned funds are meant to be carried out by 30.09.2015. In this way, the total value of the project, in accordance with the EU figures, is about 34 360 189 euros, in which participation of the state budget amounts to 2 692 728 euros and participation of the EU is 15 258 796 euros with the rest of the amount being the proprietors' own funds. Such investment scale has until now been unheard of as far as amusement parks in Poland are concerned, as in the case of other parks such costs remained within the level of merely 1 to 3 million euros at most.

The park was opened with some part of the attractions with successive devices being installed over the course of the season, however, the most show-stopping ones arrived this year. Other than roller coaster, the adrenaline inducers include the 40 meter-high Tsunami Drop tower and one of the most extreme attractions dubbed the Aztec Swing with its Mayan arrangement and theme. It has a form of a giant pendulum that turns sideways and concurrently rotates around its own axis at a dizzy speed. Other noteworthy pieces of equipment are two immense devices with double arms- the Space Gun and Space Booster measuring 14 meters high alongside the above mentioned drop tower named the Tsunami Drop that reaches more than 40 meters, accompanied by „Apocalipto” a massive rotating bench that is bound to give the rider a rush of adrenaline.

There can be found some 70+ fable-themed facilities meant for children other than the most remarkable premises and these include rides, merry-go-rounds, some water attractions and slides and also a fram of gnomes and the Jeep Safari. The youngest visitors have interactive plays organised for them as well.

The scenography and decorations for every device in the park are ornaments in their own right, thus being an extra attraction themselves. They have all been designed and manufactured at a company established directly in response to the equipment requirements in Energylandia and this is what makes it stand out compared to how this issue is tackled in the world.

Available for the visitors is the festival area also located within the premises of the park, where four show stages are another venue to be entertained. There are two theathres and the same number of amphitheatres housing a plethora of artistic, pyrotechnic and agility spectaculars. These take place at fixed hours everyday. One may also enjoy a 7D movie for children and the youth that utilises the 3D technology augmented by extra special effects in the park cinema.

12 various refreshment facilities, including a big restaurant, allow visitors to take a break and enjoy a good meal, do some shopping or come to one of many service points.

A concert area has been accessible in Energylandia since the beginning of this year and on 1 May the premier edition of Top Stars Festival was held. To this end, a stage measuring 80 meters was constructed together with stands and an area for the concertgoers. There were 7 gigs planned for this season with the audience of thousands of Polish afficionados cheering and applauding. This serves as additional promotion for the fledgeling park.

Although the proprietor of the park has not disclosed any figures pertaining to the attendance figures at Enerylandia, a rough estimate of several thousand poeple having crossed the gates of the park at the peak period is fair. Last year between the middle of July and the end of October approximately 275.000 visitors attended the park, going by unconfirmed information, therefore opening up for the present season the vistas for half a mllion to as many as a million visitors, especially bearing in mind that the number of attractions has been significantly strenghtened and a nationwide makreting campain is in full swing. Moreover, a special train has been hired for the purpose of making non-motorised visitors find their way to the park more convenient. During the summer holiday period, that is between 26 June and 31 Agust, the connection from the holiday capital city of Cracow to the park is available. Energylandia is expected to be under constant development with new investments along the way, the owner of the park avers. The next season will see the opening of a venue for western shows named the Western Camp as well as a sort of an aquapark called the Aqua Fun. Also scheduled for a next year's launch is a Formula 1 roller coaster, one of the speediest in its class in Europe. It is envisioned as a tremendosuly long reacecourse allowing the car to reach the initial acceleration that is going to be twice as great as compared to the one in a Formula 1 car at above 100 km/h within just 1,2 second. The Blue Fire found in the Europa Park, Germany can be seen as its closest roller coaster equivalent.

To the credit of the park the pricing is very equitable. The cost of a normal, single ticket is roughly 99 zł, 24 euros and is subject to multiple uses and grants access to every attraction the park offers. The owner of the park claims that his calculations indicate it would cost just half a euro to use a single device, provided that the visitor did so with every facility once and with typical pricing in Poland in mind it certainly sounds affordable. In terms of discounts, children, elderly people as well as pregnant women have not been left out as well. A free of charge entry is allowed for children under the age of 3 and also the youth on their birthday.

Family and group tickets are available as well. It is worth mentioning that residents of Zator can enjoy a free entry to Eneryglandia, a bow towards the regional community.

Polish thrillseekers waited for a long time for the creation of a professional amusement park on a European level. Huge queues to the facilities, the extreme ones in particular, bear witness to the right choice for the investment and its prosperity. In terms of distance, amusement parks in Germany, Denmark or Sweden had previously been the nearest spots of choice for Poles hungry for adrenaline.

Marek Pisarski

w kooperacji z Anną Łukasik