KIRMES & Park REVUE (English) Special Ikarus (Vorschau)

After having to distance themselves
from a 40 hectare sized ground area
on the outskirts of Warsaw due to
problems with residents, a property
was found in autumn 2010 in the
small town of Grodzisk Mazowiecki,
located approximately 30 kilometres
from the capital. The future possibility
to erect something other than
a theme park and entertainment
district on the 240 hectare area that
is ideally located directly on the
freeway from Warsaw to Berlin that
will be completed in 2012, such as
a financially lucrative shopping mall
or factory outlet centre is out of the
question. According to the mayor of
the town, Grzegorz Benedykcinski,
the area concerned has been
zoned as a recreation area. In actual
fact there were already a number of attempts to
establish a theme park in Warsaw. For example
Michael Jackson wanted to erect a subsidiary of
his Neverland-Ranch there, and Denmark's Tivoli
proclaimed the intention a number of years ago of
building an almost identical inner city park as in
Copenhagen in Poland’s capital city. This time
however, everything is different, assured the likeable
initiator P. J. Mulder: the point of no return has
been overstepped because an 80-person team is
no longer working on the design, but already on
the realization.
The first building phase is estimated to cost 400
million Euro, and is to already commence in the
spring of 2012. It will contain the theme park, water
park, and hotel and entertainment village with a
cinema complex, restaurants, pubs, and discos.
The second phase is planned to be completed by
2020, and will comprise of a second theme park,
a conference centre with additional hotel and a
luxurious wellness centre for an additional 350 million
Euro. A 90 metre diameter and up 30 metre
high dome is planned to be erected for the indoor
water park “The Palm” containing ten water slides
and themed in a Caribbean style, and will be an
architectural master feat.
The planned entrance to the theme park reminds
one strongly of the area at Disneyland Paris, because
visitors here will also have to use the hotel
underpass to reach the park. The park theme will
lean strongly towards the myths and legends of
the world, and will be divided into five theme areas,
similar to the situation at the Universal Islands
Of Adventure in Florida: the Mainstreet “Adventure
Harbour” will entice visitors with merchandising
and restaurants, the “Creature Lagoon” will be in
cartoon-style, the medieval “Castle Island” will be
associated with the current Harry-Potter-hype, the
“Legendary Island” will unite the temple constructions
of the Maya and the Inca, and the
“Polski Plaza”, opened all year round with principally
indoor attractions, is a homage to historic
Warsaw. A total of 25 attractions and shows will
spread over the park grounds.