Meli Park was a theme park which was opened in 1935 in Adinkerke in the municipality of De Panne on the Belgian coast.^[3]

Quick Facts Location, Coordinates ...

Meli Park

The Meli bee, from the Apirama dark ride
Location	Adinkerke, West Flanders, Belgium
Coordinates	51°04′51″N 2°35′55″E
Status	Defunct
Opened	21 April 1935 (1935-04-21)
Closed	3 October 1999 (1999-10-03)
Owner	Family Florizoone
Theme	Beekeeping
Operating season	April – October
Attendance	630,000 in 1994[1]
Area	> 75 acres (> 30 ha)[2]
Attractions
Total	31
Roller coasters	2
Water rides	3
Website	Official website

Close

This article's lead section may be too short to adequately summarize the key points. (December 2021)

The bee-themed amusement park was initiated by Alberic-Joseph Florizoone, owner of a honey company.^[2] Its mascot was a bee.^[4] It was one of the first Belgian theme parks. Over the years some new attractions were added.^[5] The first ones were the labyrinth and the zoo. In the 1950s, a miniature golf course, french formal gardens, a fairytale forest, water organ were introduced. Over the years, it became one of the biggest attractions in Belgium as Antwerp Zoo and Caves of Han-sur-Lesse.

Into the 1970s and the 1980s, with a growing variety of rides, Meli Park's visitor numbers reached 700,000 per annum.^[2] Its icon attraction was the Apirama dark ride, opened in 1979, featuring hundreds of animated bees.

The park closed in 1999 because the park was sold to the Flemish children's television company Studio 100 and rethemed as Plopsaland. In 1999 Alberic-Joseph Florizoone was inducted into the IAAPA Hall of Fame, an honor reserved for amusement industry innovators and pioneers.^[6]