Surprised. For example, authorities in Meppel and the surrounding area are responding to a possible collaboration with Puy du Fou. This French theme park wants to start a park of about 60 hectares near Meppel. In addition, Puy du Fou indicates that it wants to seek cooperation with the region.
Some institutions are mentioned by name, including Ogterop theatre. “Oh, really? How nice, I don’t know anything about that,” responds Natalie Straatman, director of the theater. It is not known how Puy du Fou sees a collaboration with Ogterop or other parties in concrete terms. “I would like to sit down with them to think about actions and where we can complement each other.”
Children’s circus Okidoki in Meppel is also in the picture at Puy du Fou. “We are a small organization. If they want something with a circus, that would of course be very nice,” beams Marie Tiggelman on behalf of the children’s circus. “But I don’t know if we can staff that. We work with amateurs, with children and a few adults.”
In France, Puy du Fou attracts about 2.5 million visitors every year. More than 2,000 people work there and more than 4,000 volunteers are active. The park has no attractions, but performances and shows about the history of the region are given. That is also the intention for the park near Meppel.
However, the Drenthe park will be smaller than in France. And Puy du Fou is not going to build its own school near Meppel. That is the case in France, two in fact: a primary school and a secondary school. More than 800 young people are trained there every year in about thirty courses related to drama.
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