Efteling Launch NEW Fairytale Attraction This Month!
Efteling are set to launch a BRAND NEW fairytale attraction this month. From May 14th, guests will have the chance to enjoy a new addition in the Fairytale Forest.
The Princess and the Pea – Efteling’s 31st fairytale to make it’s debut in the park’s iconic Fairytale Forest will be available for guests to view later this month.
The new attraction is set to bring a musical new spin to the classic fairytale with the Princess and the Pea set to feature musical narration.
Guests will happen upon a princess who seems determined to fall asleep atop a giant stack of mattresses, but not all is as it seems. Hidden deep within is a tiny green pea.
Will she succeed? You’ll have to wait and see. The story is set to be told through the medium of a physical themed set piece identical to other fairytale scenes located within the forest.
The story narration itself is set to be sung by none other than Flemish singer Geike Arnaert conducted in time to a melody crafted and created by house composer René Merkelbach.
The new fairytale is set to be located between the Troll King and Mother Holle’s well, with the imposing Efteling Grand Hotel in the background.
The Princess and the Pea will also be the Fairytale Forest’s first ever musically narrated attraction too. The lyrics for the poetic musical masterpiece have been created by Merkelbach and Karel Willemen.
This new approach to storytelling within Efteling’s Fairytale Forest evolves the traditional female lead storytelling of Wieteke van Dort who is most well known for such fairytale scenes as Little Red Riding Hood, Rapunzel and The Six Swans.
On 16 May, Efteling will also release a three-song EP which will include the sung narration to the fairy tale, on (among other platforms) Spotify.
So…. how DOES the story of the Princess and the Pea play out? Here’s what we’ve been lead to understand;
“Once upon a time, there was a prince who wanted to marry a real princess. On a stormy evening, in the pouring rain, a princess from a distant land knocked on the palace’s door.
The queen, intrigued by the girl, welcomed the ‘princess’ into her home and gave her a pea test to decipher whether she was a true princess fit for her son.
Before the princess went to bed, the queen hid a pea under twenty mattresses and twenty down blankets. After all, only a real princess would be sensitive enough to feel the pea and, therefore, be unable to sleep.”
Head designer Sander de Bruijn – the person behind the new attraction’s conception is said to have imagined the fairytale pavilion in the same style as that of the park’s latest new signature hotel – The Grand Hotel which plays backdrop to this enchanting new attraction.
What’s more, hotel guests will even get their own private entrance to the Fairytale Forest from this summer. The gate leads straight to Hans Christian Andersen’s famous fairy tale, which tells the tale of a princess who just can’t get to sleep. Efteling’s Fairytale Forest thus gets a third entrance.
We can’t wait to check the Princess and the Pea out for ourselves later this year, but for now those visiting can look forward to getting their own first look from May 14th onward.