Despite the firm announcement that the Mini Efteling in Nieuwkuijk would close its doors after this Saturday, the small park will open again next year. “Our visitors reacted so disappointed to the announced closure that we have decided to open again next year,” says Erwin van Veldhoven. “We will continue, but in a slightly modified form and with a new director. The fans are relieved.”
The three brothers Erwin, Jordi and Imre van Veldhoven have been running the Mini Efteling in Nieuwkuijk since 1984. The ‘hobby that got out of hand’ would come to an end this fall, because the youngest brother Imre had announced that he would stop. “The extensive work at the Mini Efteling could no longer be combined with my job at the University of Twente.”
“One more season to pop and then finally closed.”
“I was certainly the driving force behind the Mini Efteling in recent years,” says Imre, who was director of the small amusement park for 17 years. “To cite an example: until 2015, I drove every weekend from Enschede to Nieuwkuijk for the Mini Efteling and now quite often. However, it can no longer be combined, I’m going to withdraw. After my decision to stop, we decided to shoot one more season and then close permanently. But it turned out differently, the brothers continue.”
“After many mainly nightly talking sessions, the brothers Jordi and Erwin still saw opportunities to continue”, says Imre about reversing the decision to close permanently. “We are looking for a successor for him,” says brother Erwin. “We are mainly looking for someone who is also technical. In the park he was responsible for the technology all that time and we have a lot of technology with us.
“He became director when his older brothers found work in the Randstad.”
“Imre was the face of the Mini Efteling”, says volunteer Sander de Vaan. “He became director when his older brothers found work in the Randstad. Despite the fact that he is saying goodbye, there is also a kind of party atmosphere on the last opening day of the season. The people who have reserved today for the last three tours are especially happy that we will open again next year. They would like to attend director Imre’s farewell.
So will the Mini Efteling open again next season? “Yes, but with adjusted opening hours,” says Sander. “We used to be open every weekend, next season we will be open every other week from April to October. That requires less from the volunteers and from the new director, who has yet to be found.”
Does the Mini Efteling still have a future, is a question that we put to the outgoing director Imre, among others. “I really hope it will work. I think it will depend on whether they can find a technical person. In any case, it has brought me a lot of good things.”
ALSO READ: Corona puts a big line through a sunny future and anniversary of the Mini Efteling