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OzIris B&M Inverted Coaster ready to immerse

Parc Astérix' visitors into a new Egyptian universe

Update : 19:04 Published by François Mayné the 18 February 2012, New.

A significant marketing campaign will focus on advertising display and new media

Parc Astérix, owned and operated by Compagnie des Alpes, unveiled officially the name of its new rollercoaster scheduled to open on April 7 : OzIris. The ride will be the second Bolliger & Mabillard Inverted Coaster in France after “The Monster” that opened at Walygator Parc in 2010.

OzIris will be part of a new egyptian themed zone inspired by one of the Asterix comic book serie “Asterix and Cleopatra” which will enlarge the park area of 10%. With exotic plants, palm trees, rocks, lake, Egyptian monuments and a huge temple, the new zone will combine the characteristic humor of Asterix cartoon with a custom design rollercoaster to immerse visitors into a very popular universe.

Pascal Fliche, Parc Astérix' General Manager explains “We were dreaming about an egyptian zone for a very long time at Parc Astérix. This universe is praised by both our fans and visitors and “Asterix and Cleopatra’ is the best seller story of Asterix among the 350 million comic books sold all over the world. Moreover in France, a movie inspired by the story has been a huge success a few years ago and is still the third as top selling movie in the country.”

OzIris will be the second B&M Inverted Coaster to open in France

Led by CDA Productions, the creative department of Compagnie des Alpes, the project took more than 3 years to become a reality. OzIris concept designer, Julien Bertevas, was working at the park’s decoration workshops before answering to a call for tenders. “We gave him a chance” says
Pascal Fliche “Julien is a theme park enthusiast and he knows the attractions industry very well. He showed a big interest and has such great ideas that we decided to give him the keys of the project. We are very happy that we did a “Made in France” for the renewal of Parc Astérix.”

OzIris will stand at 40 meters (131 feet) high, for a track length of 1000 meters (3280 feet), a maximum speed of 90 km/h (56 mph) and will feature 3 tunnels and 5 inversions, including the one-of-a-kind "Dive Loop". Trains will carry 32 passengers on 8 rows of 4 for a hourly capacity of 1600 persons. Julien Bertevas describes the creation process : “We decided quickly to get an Inverted Coaster because we wanted something very different of our existing rollercoasters. We choosed to work with the Swiss manufacturer Bolliger & Mabillard because it is recognized to be the best in the industry.” He adds: “There is no brakes during the ride because we wanted to keep a good feeling of speed all long, as our Wooden Coaster, Tonnerre de Zeus.”

From left to right: Pascal Fliche (GM of Parc Astérix), Julien Bertevas (concept designer), Patrice Peyrieras (composer), Benoit Spriet (Head of CDA Productions) and Arnaud Bouthéon (Marketing Manager Parc Astérix)

The name OzIris is a wink to another Asterix adventure “The Twelve Tasks of Asterix”. In this animation movie, Asterix and his friend Obelix need to succeed 12 tasks, including survive to the hypnotic gaze of an Egyptian sorcerer : iris. The suffix “Oz” is a sort of contraction of the verb “Oser” which means in French “Dare”, OzIris could then be translated by “Dare Iris”.

The temple, masterpiece of the zone, will symbolize the office of Iris, where the megalomaniac sorcerer is preparing a new hypnotic formula to invite visitors to test the experience of a sort of collective levitation.

Concept-art of the waiting room (first part of the indoor queue)

The queue will start outside with walkways below the ride before entering inside the temple. The waiting time of the indoor queue will be about 20 minutes and visitors will cross 4 different rooms. They will first visit the sorcerer’s waiting room followed by a showroom where Iris presents its “best realizations”. Visitors will then access a dark labatory with potions and papyrus scrolls before arriving at the experiments room : the station. “The entire queue will be nicely themed, with optical illusions, paintings, reliefs, decorations and other props” explains Julien Bertevas. “Concerning the station, I tried to create a “wow” effect playing on volumes with false perspectives ... I think even those who only come here to ride the coaster will still be surprised by this room! ” At the exit, visitors will enjoy a small shop with merchandising and on-ride pictures.

Global investment for the project is € 20 million (about $ 26 million) of which half is dedicated for the theming. Parcs Astérix works with Belgian company Neverland Themeparks Project for all the artificial rocks work and the temple facade and French company AZ Decor for the indoor queue and some outside monuments, like an obelisk-shaped Eiffel Tower! Pascal Fliche explains “It is an important investment for us and a ride that clearly sets Parc Astérix as one of the best theme parks in Europe !”

To immerse visitors into this new universe, Julien Bertevas has worked with the French composer Patrice Peyrieras to create an unique soundtrack. He explains “There will be two loops of 75 minutes, one for the entire zone, and the other for the OzIrix queue line. We use traditionnal oriental instruments and even a Symphonic orchestra of 120 musicians !”

New Asterix characters from Egypt (Cleopatra, Iris, Numérobis, etc.) will be present in the new zone for meet and greet. Also an existing family coaster from Zierer (Périferix) will be integrated and renamed “SOS Numérobis”. OzIris marks the confirmation of Parc Astérix’ return in its core business. Indeed, in the early 2000’s, the park decided to work on non-branded projects with attractions such as Oxygénarium (1999), La Trace du Hourra (2001) or TransDémonium (2003) before coming back in Asterix universe in 2008 with “Le Défi de César”.

Julien Bertevas is the concept designer of the OzIris project

A significant marketing campaign will be set up to launch the ride, with a focus on display advertising and new media, in particular through the creation of a mobile application.

Located not far from Paris, Parc Astérix is one of the 4 most popular theme park in France with Disneyland Paris, Futuroscope and Puy du Fou. The attendance for 2011 was about 1,6 million visitors and the management expect to welcome 200,000 more in 2012, with a target of 2 million visitors for 2014 when the park will celebrate it’s 25th birthday.

Bolliger & Mabillard - Neverland Themepark Projects - Marketing - Compagnie des Alpes - -

Written by François Mayné

François Mayné Publishing Director » Contact Us
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Parc Astérix (Amusement park)
France

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Group : Compagnie des Alpes
Site : www.parcasterix.fr

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