Puy du Fou is bringing its unique style of grandiose live entertainment to the UK after gaining approval from local authorities for the development of Eleven Arches, with the £27m (US$41.4m, €36.7m) attraction coming to the northeast of England in June 2016.

Having won backing for the project in Bishop Auckland, County Durham, the team behind the development view the multi-million pound visitor attraction as the key part of the wider regeneration of Bishop Auckland and the surrounding area.

“We’ve entered into an artistic partnership with Puy du Fou and over the last 24 months their creative team has worked with us and they are now standing ready to help us deliver the show that we built and wrote together,” said Anne-Isabella Daulon, CEO of Eleven Arches, speaking at the press launch this week. “Profits from the show will be reinvested back into the show. We hope to create a long-lasting regeneration loop based on this model."

Modelled on the success of the not-for-profit Puy du Fou historical theme park in France, the Eleven Arches night show will run up to 30 times a year, with the 90-minute extravaganza held at Auckland Castle. It will tell the story of 2,000 years of British history – starting in Roman times and going all the way up to World War II. 1,000 volunteers trained by an academy to be set up by Eleven Arches, will not only perform on-stage, but also act as technical crew and handle elements such as first-aid, costume design and prop making.

Eleven Arches will have an annual capacity of 240,000 people, with the ability to accommodate up to 8,000 per show. The attraction is aiming for the same success levels as Puy du Fou in France, which fills 99 per cent of its seats all-year-round. In year one, the park has forecast 150,000 visitors with a lighter schedule of 17 shows. If Eleven Arches proves a success, plans have been mooted to run smaller shows across the UK, a strategy which won’t be employed until the park has been active for at least two years.

The project will inject £9m (US$13.8m, €12.2m) into the local economy, creating 492 jobs at a regional level. Eleven Arches is being operated as a charitable scheme and is part of the larger £90m (US$138m, €122m) charitable enterprise based around Auckland Castle – which is led by philanthropist and city financier Jonathan Ruffer, who is the Eleven Arches scheme’s main backer. £3m (US$4.6m, €4m) has already been committed to the project, with a further £24m (US$36.8m, €32.7m) to be invested over the next year.

The council approved the project despite concerns over noise levels, commenting that the opportunity was “not one to be missed.”