The ‘Fun West’ Theme Park

'Fun West', the piece of the Wild West hidden among the mountains of El Campello

De Alicante

By Jorge Verdú

February 20, 2024

The peculiar town transports its visitors to the nineteenth century with its buildings and decorations, being the scene of multiple productions.

Nestled between the semi-desert mountains of El Campello, a village in the far west remains calm. The sheriff is not in his office, there are no bandits in the jail, the hospital seems closed and there are no believers in the church, the armory has no customers to sell shotguns to, and the only one waiting at the bank door is a donkey that brays if any stranger approaches.

"It's the alarm here," says a man in the restaurant behind the well and near the gallows. He is the owner of the land, but he does not have a hat. Ramon Rodriguez has just fired a visitor who plans to do on-site activities to foster relationships among his company's workers.

Rodríguez receives EL ESPAÑOL de Alicante while enjoying the calm of his domains in the beautiful setting of the Barranc d'Aigües, only interrupted by calls to his phone from clients interested in using the sets of the 'Fun West' estate for photo shoots, filming, events, weddings...

This piece of the Far West in Alicante opened in 1985 and has 250,000 square meters, of which more than 120,000 is occupied by the peculiar theme park, the first in the entire province. The similarity of its sets with the towns near the Mississippi River in the United States during the second half of the nineteenth century makes it a lure for directors, producers, artists, bikers, birthday boys or anyone who wants to travel back in time.

Its unique enclave, between mountains and without any building, factory, or highway in sight to take its visitors out of the charm, make it a jewel built from wooden planks. "Everything has been filmed here, movies, music videos, series and even adult films," says the owner.

Some of the most important productions that have chosen the 'Fun West' as a setting have been the Amazon Prime series Sin Huellas (Without Traces), Bala Perdida, a 2003 feature film, or music videos by groups such as Sweet California. "Pedro Almodóvar was last summer looking at him for one of his projects," adds the owner.

The facility also features a Western-style lounge and restaurant, as well as teepee tents for actors to rest while filming, and swimming pools cool guests off for parties or celebrations during the summer.

Rodriguez says he is negotiating with foreign companies to bring tour buses to the area, which also has a small circuit where car companies test their new models. The great activity of the estate makes El Campello benefit and fill its hotels and restaurants when the village is reserved for large events.

Nestled between the semi-desert mountains of El Campello, a village in the far west remains calm. The sheriff is not in his office, there are no bandits in the jail, the hospital seems closed and there are no believers in the church, the armory has no customers to sell shotguns to, and the only one waiting at the bank door is a donkey that brays if any stranger approaches.

"It's the alarm here," says a man in the restaurant behind the well and near the gallows. He is the owner of the land, but he does not have a hat. Ramon Rodriguez has just fired a visitor who plans to do on-site activities to foster relationships among his company's workers.

Rodríguez receives EL ESPAÑOL de Alicante while enjoying the calm of his domains in the beautiful setting of the Barranc d'Aigües, only interrupted by calls to his phone from clients interested in using the sets of the 'Fun West' estate for photo shoots, filming, events, weddings.

This piece of the Far West in Alicante opened in 1985 and has 250,000 square meters, of which more than 120,000 is occupied by the peculiar theme park, the first in the entire province. The similarity of its sets with the towns near the Mississippi River in the United States during the second half of the nineteenth century makes it a lure for directors, producers, artists, bikers, birthday boys or anyone who wants to travel back in time.

Its unique enclave, between mountains and without any building, factory, or highway in sight to take its visitors out of the charm, make it a jewel built from wooden planks. "Everything has been filmed here, movies, music videos, series and even adult films," says the owner.

Some of the most important productions that have chosen the 'Fun West' as a setting have been the Amazon Prime series Sin Huellas (Without Traces), Bala Perdida, a 2003 feature film, or music videos by groups such as Sweet California. "Pedro Almodóvar was last summer looking at him for one of his projects," adds the owner.

The facility also features a Western-style lounge and restaurant, as well as teepee tents for actors to rest while filming, and swimming pools cool guests off for parties or celebrations during the summer.

Rodriguez says he is negotiating with foreign companies to bring tour buses to the area, which also has a small circuit where car companies test their new models. The great activity of the estate makes El Campello benefit and fill its hotels and restaurants when the village is reserved for large events.

"A gathering of 3,000 bikers filled up a lot of hotels, just like when they come to shoot a movie that has hundreds of extras," he says. In addition, its use also extends to airsoft games and role-playing games.

Maintaining this treasure is not easy. "You have to paint it and change the boards when they break to be careful as when it was created," says the manager. He acquired it in 1999 and reopened it after the death of its creator after falling in love with it when he visited it for the first time.

"The specialists who worked here would come to my gym and always invite me to see them, until one day they stopped coming and I went. You could already see that it was in low hours, but I liked it a lot, although it didn't have roads, parking lots or electricity, and I did everything for it, with an underground light system so that it wouldn't break the image," says Rodríguez.

The owner has refused to build during all this time, "my intention has always been to maintain it and make an environment with a western atmosphere, but from the beginning they have put obstacles in my way," he laments. The problems with the City Council of El Campello have been going on for a long time and have even ended up in court for urban planning issues.

"The urban planning of 1986 hid the 'Fun West', and when they wanted to expand the municipality 30 years later, the only land disqualified was this one and, as it was not protected, they gave it to a third party to build on," he says about a duel that continues to this day.

Finally, it has not been built after "knocking down" the campellero plan and returning to the old ordinance by legal means, so now the consistory "puts impediments to make me leave and speculate with the land. Being the only beautiful thing they have in the village; they don't support any project.

The owner believes that the Guardia Civil is also trying to "throw him out of there" with controls on the door and giving the place a bad reputation "when nothing illegal has ever happened here". The "plan drawn up" by the municipality against him wants to "make me bored and leave, and they are not going to achieve that with me, because I don't do it for money, but for hobby and to have it beautiful for the people," he stresses.