The main entrance to Dadipark. Dadipark was opened in 1950 under the influence of local priest Gaston Deweer. The town of Dadizele was big touristic attraction, lots of pilgrims were coming to visit a basilik.

2. The park developed from the playground for kids of pilgrims to an amusement park.

3. It was not aimed to big modern attractions but rather was an easily accessible and inexpensive park for children.

4. The main attraction of the park was 800 meters long suspended bridge along the perimeter of the park.

5. The bridge was the longest in Europe at the moment.

6. There’re still attractions in the park, but most of them are overgrown.

7. For several years there was attempts to breath the new life in the park.

8. New since 1980:
* Witch hut
* 3rd animal park
* Expanded Winnetou terrain
* Children paradise
// The management is not responsible for accidents.

9. The menu of the cafe – prices are in Belgian and French francks (Bfr and Ffr)

10. The "Nautic Jet" attraction.

11.

12.

13. In 2002 it was announced that the park would be closed for one year renovation, but it was never reopened since.

14. Since 2004 many companies were interested in buying the park and reconstruct it to more modern amusement park with attractions like "Log ride".

15. After much discussions they were ready to sign the planning regulations.

16. But apparently it was hard for investors to come over the bridge. The area falls under the term "daily recreation" which means it should be easily accessible and should only have commercial profit from 15 to 20 percent.

17. In 2005 action committee "Save Dadipark" was established to accelerate the park redeveloppement and reopening.

18. After several meetings of the committee the developer promised a quick solution. The park would be revitalized in the short term, renewing a water system, a hall and game shops.

19. The bridge and the big slide should be preserved.

20. The only problem was the regional plan, where Dadipark is registered as recreation area. In 2011, there is no prospect of redevelopment of the park and it is becoming increasingly difficult to attract investors.

21. Reopening therefore seems more unlikely than ever. In the summer of 2011 a van was set on fire, showing that the security is inadequate.

22. On September 20, 2011 was therefore announced that the Municipality of Moorslede have a demolition permit approved and will organize clean-up.

23. Let’s walk around the park, anyway. It’s open for everybody and was quite vandalized. But some graffity are nice.

24. Skateboarders build a small skatepark inside a main hall.

25. Small pleasure train will never carry passengers again…

26. A small house in the middle of a labyrinth

27. Spiral staircase leads to the top of slide ride.

28. Small slide ride

29. A toilet.

30. Animal park house.

31. A train cart.

32. Some of attractions are still functioning. We got a ride on this rolling thing.

33. Rolling tubes are also fun!

34. Try to hold yourself upside down! – Available on Getty Images

35. Overgrown swings

36. Another fun attraction – it can roll and tilt.

37. More swings

38. Swings

39. One of the swings were not overgrown enough, so we ride it!

40. Next there was a rope ride.

41. It’s awesome!

42. It becomes even better because one rides between trees

43. Model of a ship. Purpose unknown.

44. A big slide.

45. I did it once =)

46. Another rolling tube.

47. All building are rolled in graffity.

48. Spiral staircase

49. The cafe next to the park

50. The door

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 4th, 2011 at 02:14 and is filed under Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.