Witte) had to solve everything." In 1999, the Belgian cult-rock band, Dead Man Ray, toured through Belgium and the Netherlands with the film. For Daan Stuyven (Daan) and Rudy Trouvé (ex-dEUS), it is also an ode to the sometimes misunderstood)artistic versatility that characterized Schoepen the artist: A true professional who was able to turn his jazzy country-guitar playing, his deep, angelic voice and his wacky sense of humor into a trademark and later into an amusement park. Bobbejaanland (cabaret period) It was never Schoepen's intention to build an amusement park; the current park arose from his musical career. After nearly 15 years of constant touring, he began thinking about a place to settle down. In 1959, he bought a 30 hectare, marshy domain in Lichtaart-Kasterlee, called the Abroek. There he built a theater with nearly 1000 seats and created a 2.2 kilometer beach. This was to become Bobbejaanland, a name coined by his manager, Jacques Kluger. On 31 December 1961, Bobbejaanland was officially opened by Bobbejaan Schoepen and his wife Josée, with whom he developed the park into his life's work. During the high season, Schoepen himself performed from two to five concerts per day. Artists from the Belgian, Dutch, and German cabaret-world performed there as well, though not during Schoepen's own program. Entrepreneurship Bobbejaanland evolved from 1975 onwards into a fully fledged amusement park. Schoepen focused his attention solely on the business aspect of the park, slowly pushing his musical career into the background. His performances became a rarity but Bobbejaanland, which he operated with his family, developed into one of the top amusement parks in the Benelux region. In the mid-80s the shows became more streamlined, and oriented toward a more international audience. The amusement park finally dominated the cabaret, and the entrepreneur the artist. He did continue singing, albeit with more streamlined shows, which inevitably gave way to the routine of the amusement park. At a certain point my performances no longer had anything artistic about them. I received a phone call from my wife five minutes before I had to go on stage: 'Two busses of Germans, one bus of Danes and three busses of Spaniards'. And then I adapted my show to suit them. There was no room for sentiment in Bobbejaanland. It was work, work, and more work in order to keep the business profitable. Sixteen hours a day, seven days a week. We