Amusement Park Chain Opens in City
The chain’s founder said Happylon wants to open amusement parks in at least 15 Russian cities.
Published: April 27, 2011 (Issue # 1653)
FOR SPT
TV host Ivan Urgant is pictured with a clown at the opening of the Happylon children’s amusement park last weekend.
A new children’s amusement park belonging to the Happylon international chain of 10 modern theme parks opened in St. Petersburg’s Galeria shopping mall last weekend.
Investment in the park totaled 12 million rubles ($430,000), and the company expects the pay-back period to be from four to seven years.
The prices for the attractions range from about 200 rubles ($7.20) for large rides to 50 rubles ($1.80) for a video game. Rustam Ageyev, founder of the Happylon chain, said the average cost of a visit to the entertainment park for a child could range from 500 to 1,000 rubles ($18 to $35). The park is aimed at children from three to 12 years old.
Each of the chain’s nine Happylon parks is constructed in a different style. St. Petersburg’s Happylon is designed as a Pirate Treasure Island. Inside the park’s 4,500 square-meter-area, visitors can choose from 10 rides, play on more than 100 video games and video simulators, play mini-bowling and view a 5D cruise cinema attraction with special effects, sounds and stereo pictures.
Younger children who visit the theme park can play on roundabouts, bumper cars and other attractions.
Among the center’s most prominent attractions are the Lasertag “Star Wars” game in which teams with light sabers can compete, “Jack’s Tower,” in which visitors can experience free fall, “Tsunami,” in which free fall is combined with rotation, giving a realistic feeling of being caught inside a storm, “Caribbean Race,” a motordrome for car lovers, and “Pirate Town,” in which children can travel along ladders and labyrinths in a multi-level area.
Ageyev said the park’s mission would be “to create a territory of childhood in which parents and children will have a chance to be together and share joy.”
Safety has been one of the entertainment park’s major priorities, according to its founders. The company equipped the center with well-tested and high-quality attractions, Ageyev said at a press conference. All the games and rides came from the U.S., Europe or Japan, he said.
The first Happylon Park was opened in 2006 in Almaty, Kazakhstan, Ageyev’s hometown. There are also two Happylon theme parks in Moscow.
Ageyev said the company wants to open Happylon theme parks in at least 15 of Russia’s biggest cities.
Happylon is located on the fifth floor of the Galeria shopping center on Ligovsky Prospekt. The park is open daily from 10 a.m. through 11 p.m.