ABBA THE MUSEUM GRAND OPENING ON MAY 7th

ABBA The Museum opens at Djurgården in Stockholm May 7th 2013 and offers an interactive journey through one of the biggest success stories in music history. Here the visitor will get close to the band by experiencing what it’s like to be the fifth member of ABBA, get on stage together with the other members, enter the Polar studio and see what he or she looks like in ABBA’s legendary costumes, and much more. Agnetha, Benny, Björn and Frida will tell their own personal ABBA stories through the museum audio guide.

ABBA The Museum aims to make its exhibitions as interactive as possible. For example, there is a self-playing piano that is linked up to Benny’s studio. If the visitor is lucky, the red light will flash and the piano (Benny) will start playing while he or she is there.

The group’s first major hit, “Ring Ring” from 1973, is celebrated by a red telephone in the exhibition. Only four people in the entire world have the phone number…

“The new museum will give a complete picture of the band, the music and the incredible success we experienced in the ‘70s and ‘80s, something that we haven’t been able to present until now. It will be like an experience-based music documentary that invites the visitor backstage as well as on and in front of the stage”, says Björn Ulvaeus.

The visit to the museum starts with a film by Jonas Åkerlund, which will be shown in a 180 degree cinema room. The visitor will then go on to Gamleby Folkets Park, which will symbolize the start of the members’ careers in the ‘60s. The exhibition then progresses via Brighton in 1974, the song writing cottage on the island of Viggsö, Stig Anderson’s office, Owe Sandström’s tailor studio, arenas around the world, Björn and Agnetha’s kitchen, and the legendary Polar studio. And the visitor will do it together with Björn, Agnetha, Frida and Benny who, in the museum’s audio guide, will tell the story about their time in ABBA, developed in collaboration with the writer of the Mamma Mia! manuscript, Catherine Johnson. The curator of the exhibition is the band’s former stylist Ingmarie Halling.

“I was there on the world tours and saw the work backstage as well as in front of it. There was hard work and an ordinary everyday life behind the success. We hope that we have created both a documentary and a spectacular music exhibition. We have a solid archive, to say the least; everything has been saved”, says Ingmarie Halling, exhibition manager at ABBA The Museum.

Björn Ulvaeus takes part in the day to day work at the museum, which is headed by CEO Mattias Hans- son.

ABBA The Museum opens to the public on May 7th 2013 at Djurgårdsvägen 68, next to Gröna Lund at the scenic Djurgården in Stockholm.

Tickets for ABBA The Museum are available at www.abbathemuseum.com.