P R E S S  R E L E A S E  

On Wednesday 12 March at 16:30, Aart Staartjes — better known as Mr Aart, a very popular Sesame Street personality in the Netherlands — will be performing the official opening ceremony of the ‘Sesame Street in Madurodam’ exhibition. Alexandra Tan, the 18-year old mayor of Madurodam, will also be present. Madurodam is organizing this exhibition in partnership with the educational, non-profit organization Sesame Workshop and in co-operation with NPS.

The exhibition is Sesame Street at its best: educational amusement, informative adventures and games that children can get on with by themselves using the Sesame Street passport. The activities include drawing and handicrafts with Bert and Ernie, having fun in the Broccoli Forest, counting with Count von Count, listening to stories in the Sesame Street dunes, and last but not least: the opportunity for a photo with lifesize Bert, Ernie or Elmo.

Broadcast in 130 countries

The Sesame Street preschool and toddler television show was originally developed in the United States in 1969. The American producers seem to have developed a unique, universally fun formula for encouraging children to count and to read, to share, and to appreciate similarities and differences. Nowadays, the series is broadcast in over 130 countries and it exists in more than 25 different international versions.

Sesame Street in the Netherlands

The NOS, now the NPS, began broadcasting Sesame Street on 4 January 1976. The programme is still extraordinarily popular with all generations and has become a household name. These days, Sesame Street can be seen on television three times a day. In addition to the international characters such as Bert, Ernie and Elmo, special characters have been developed for the Dutch version of Sesame Street: Pino, Tommie, Ieniemienie, and since 2003, Purk the baby piglet.

Opening times

The Sesame Street in Madurodam exhibition opens to the public on 13 March and runs until 26 October 2008. Exhibition opening times are from 10:00 until 18:00 (from 10:00 until 22:00 during July and August). No additional charge for visiting the exhibition will be added to the Madurodam entrance fee. Madurodam is open daily from 09:00 until 20:00 until 30 June; until 23:00 during July and August; and until 18:00 from September.
More information
For further information, visitors are kindly advised to visit www.madurodam.nl