Heide Park

Heide-Park
Location	Soltau, Lower Saxony, Germany,
Website	www.heide-park.de
Owner	Merlin Entertainments
Opened	19 August 1978
Operating season	March-November
Area	~ 850,000 m2
Rides	40 total 7 roller coasters 3 water rides

The Heide Park (German: Heide-Park) is a theme park in Soltau, Lower Saxony. With an overall area of over 850,000 m², it is one of the biggest German Amusement Parks and the biggest in Northern Germany. The theme park is part of the British-based Merlin Entertainments. The current manager of the park is Hannes W. Mairinger.

Inverted roller coaster Limit at Heide Park

History

The area on which Heide-Park was built originally did not belong to the game reserve Heidenhof. In 1978 Hans-Jürgen Tiemann gave away the area under the condition that who ever took it would keep the Heidenhof Chapel (built in 1349) and save the animals living in the park. At its opening on 19 August 1978 about 200,000 people visited and enjoyed the (then) six rides. You can get into Heide park with the Merlin Annual pass.

For their 20th birthday, Tokio Hotel twin members, Bill and Tom Kaulitz rented out the park to have a big birthday bash with 20 of their closest friends and relatives.

Attractions

Roller coaster Colossos with the "Statue of Liberty"

Heide Park currently has about 40 rides which are mainly aimed at families but its thrill rides are also very popular. One of the main attractions is Colossos, a wooden roller coaster, which until the opening of Balder, on 12 April 2003 in the Swedish amusement park Liseberg, was the steepest wooden roller coaster in the world. The latest attraction is the Launched roller coaster "Desert Race". It is Germany's first launched roller coaster and accelerates from 0-100 km/h (0-62 mph) in just 2.4 seconds and reaches a maximum of 5G positive during the ride. The ride is an almost near clone of Rita: Queen of speed located at Alton Towers in the U.K, which is also part of Merlin Entertainments Group. As of June 2009 it will be beaten by another German roller coaster, the world's fastest roller coaster Ring°Racer which shall accelerate to 216.9 km/h in 2.5 seconds.

Panoramic view of Colossos

Roller coasters

Water rides

Part of the roller coaster Big Loop

Other attractions

Scene of the Pirate Show

Shows

Seven shows are available each day at Heide Park, these are;

• Dolphin Show
• Parrot Show
• Seal Show
• Pirate Show
• Hallo Spencer Show
• Bird Theatre
• Comic Theatre

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Heide-Park

• Official Flash-Website of the Heide-Park
• Heide-Park Holiday-Camp
• Heide-Park-world - Info, Photos, Forum, Gallery etc.

Coordinates: 53°01′41″N 9°52′09″E / 53.02806°N 9.86917°E / 53.02806; 9.86917