Event - El Mundo Fantasia

juli 04, 2022

Let's start with a picture:

At first I simply wanted to create a placeholder for this fantasy fair in the Mondo Verde amusement park.. but I fear I might forget some things I wanted to say if I wait till all pictures have been processed.
Follow the progress on Instagram, Facebook, or directely at the source on Flickr

And for a short video it is HERE on Clapper with the other fair videos (Elfia, Trolls-et-Légendes, MOD, cosplay shoots, parades,..). Maybe I should put those on Tiktok too?

First of all a mental note about the location of Mondo Verde in Landgraaf (Dutch Limburg).

You should see this place as 3 amusement parks combined into 1.
* There's a waterpark filled with water rides & splash slides for the kids. Fun-fun-fun on a hot Summer day. (and a good spot for a quick shot of the Atlantian Mera) This was opened during the fair. So at first I thought that +50% of the visitors only came to swim. But that was our mistake because we visited this part to begin with.
* Next up is an animal zoo. You can compare it to a normal zoo like in Antwerp. However if you're used to guiding photowalks through an animal park like Pairi Daiza, you suddenly notice how little space normal zoos offer to the wildlife. The animals of Mondo Verde look well taken care for, so let's hope that with time the emplacements will become larger and with more variation to trigger the animals in feeling less incarcerated. One can only imagine how the animals in the zoos of old must have been, those were truly prisons. However, the tigers I did pity só much. These majestic beasts live next to the bumper cars filled with dozens of screaming kids.. Forget your tiger-siesta!
* But then came the pleasant surprise: the magical garden with a Toscan villa (on a hill) including an Italian statue-garden, a Moroccan castle, fantasy caves, Asian gardens, Portugese, English, Spanish constructions and gardens and more.. this was where we should have gone to start with. Honestly: super spots to make some pictures or to enjoy the shade by a pond with a glass of wine. Gorgeous!
Admitedly since we had a wheelchair to take into account: some of the roads (like the Moroccan desert or the hill to Toscany) were a bit of a challenge, but once you've made a few tours around the grounds you find ways around many of the harder routes. The crew was luckily very helpfull, drinks were available everywhere and some of the food was included in the price (free pancakes!!!!!). It might however be an idea to have more toilets for the disabled on the grounds, especially seen the number of wheelchair bound people during the event.

This brings us to the event itself.

* I'll repeat myself: a very friendly crew.
* An event formula that has entrance + free food/drinks + access to more than just the event (like the waterpark) all in the same basic price. Nice idea.
* A chance to see many German cosplayers & costumers on top of the Belgo-Dutch attendees. A very friendly mix I must say with most people being very willing to pose for a quick picture. (It might have helped that the Dutch Foto Fair was during the same weekend, to limit the number of attending photogs 😛) And thanks to this mix loads of rare costumes were to be spotted.. for the Warhammer geeks: There were Skaven.
* The idea of having the market stalls dispersed all over the grounds was nice, yet hard to remember where you saw something or to quickly go buy it just before leaving. Now or never.
* Animation: Our own fault that we missed everything except a band at the Toscan villa.

So yes it was a fun day.
Seeing people again, meeting new people.
Making pictures of gorgeous costumes (thanks for posing!).
Nobody complaining about having to scan my QR-code.
I had pancakes.
The end of the day felt like an evening in the Mediterranean.
We had a good time and only returned to the parking after 8PM.
Voor herhaling vatbaar, we say in Dutch.