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On RMC Découverte, a behind-the-scenes look at the most visited seasonal park in the world

2022-08-09T05:26:11.257Z


The channel takes its cameras to the heart of Europa-Park, which has been cultivating its difference since 1975 between family tradition and perpetual innovation.


One hundred hectares, more than five million visitors a year, nearly sixty attractions, six hotels, eight thousand employees in high season… The figures for Europa-Park are almost as dizzying as the roller coasters that made it so successful.

In less than fifty years, this site has become a must, named "best park in the world" from 2014 to 2019 by the American specialist magazine "Amusement Today".

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A family story

While thousands of French people will enjoy this summer this amusement park built on the theme of Europe, RMC Découverte offers to discover behind the scenes but also the history in a documentary broadcast this Tuesday August 9 at 9:05 p.m.

Because Europa-Park has the particularity of being a family business.

The Mack family, who started the site, have been building rides for eight generations!

In 1780, Paul Mack made carts and pipes.

His descendant Heinrich created the first roller coaster in 1921 while his successor, Franz, gave the company an international dimension, baptized "Mack rides" in the 1950s. It builds and sells rides all over the world ( this is still the case today) and shows them to his buyers in a place set up near the construction company.

The idea then germinated in the mind of Franz Mack and his son Roland, to build a park to test the machines.

They set it up a few kilometers further, in Rust, on a 16-hectare site and opened on July 12, 1975. The success was immediate.

Three years after its opening, the site welcomes one million visitors a year!

Read alsoAt Europa-Park, Ukrainian and Russian artists work together

Some of the most impressive roller coasters in the world

The founders choose Europe to thematize the site and multiply the expansions and innovations year after year.

Today, visitors can stroll through fifteen European districts decorated according to the traditions of each country and discover various attractions including thirteen of the most impressive roller coasters in the world.

The Silver Star, for example, perched 63 meters high, can reach 130 km/h while the Wodan, built on a wooden structure 40 meters high, offers a 1050 meter long course.

*

The Blue Fire has no less than four inversions, including one of the highest loops in Europe!

Jewels of technology that require daily attention as the documentary reveals.

Thanks to synthetic images, the film sheds light on their operation but also the operations necessary for their maintenance.

They are thus scrutinized morning and evening in their smallest details.

Innovation as a watchword

The success of Europa-Park owes nothing to chance, the Mack family having made the word innovation its leitmotif.

Over the decades, the company's leaders have constantly challenged themselves, offering ever more impressive rides and new ones every year.

In November 2019, they launched Rulantica, a gigantic water park with 39 attractions including thirty slides and a huge wave pool, all located just a few kilometers from Europa-Park.

A pharaonic project told, in the documentary, by the designers themselves who detail the construction, the system for filtering the water or the arrival of the slides in hundreds of containers... A new bet won since Rulantica was voted best water park

Read alsoThe Mack family or the passion for amusement parks

Virtual reality to bet on the future

But the construction of new parks or unique rides are not the only levers for innovation.

The Mack family continues its story by betting in particular on virtual reality.

She embarked on this adventure when the concept was still not widespread in amusement parks, even creating the company Mack NeXT, specializing in this development.

Seven years ago, it implemented virtual reality in roller coasters (called Coastiality), a first in the world.

In the Alpenexpress, a ride built in 1984 and not going beyond 45 km / h, a helmet is available for two euros, allowing you to live a completely different experience from that usually offered by this roller coaster.

“We create 3D animations from existing curves, which we can accentuate by offering loops on a straight line for example”

Mathis Gullon, MackNeXT project manager

Virtual reality allows you to dive into a virtual world synchronized with the roller coaster.

One can thus believe to make a looping or an inversion whereas there is none in the merry-go-round.

"

We create 3D animations from existing curves, which can be accentuated by offering loops on a straight line, for example

," explains Mathis Gullon, MackNeXT project manager.

We look at the course and we tailor it.

We've done it for 50 roller coasters around the world.

It's a way of renewing the rides by providing an additional experience

 ”.

In the park, two rides are equipped with this technology: Alpenexpress and Valerian.

The Mack family also created the entertainment center YOULLBE ("you will be whoever you want to be") which offers new experiences while walking.

Helmet on the head, we discover another world in which we must solve puzzles, with sensations of falling or emptiness while the ground is flat.

Near Europa-Park, YOULLBE GO offers an even more in-depth version that pushes the boundaries of reality even further thanks, this time, to a hundred cameras.

"

Each generation has its own challenge and I am looking to develop our business for tomorrow

 ", confides, in the documentary, Mickael Mack, son of Roland and co-director of the park.

A Croatian district and a new roller coaster are already planned for 2023. Carried by this amazing family, the German park has not finished making people talk about it...

Source: lefigaro

All news articles on 2022-08-09

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