Abba museum location revealed

by Stella Floras 77 views

The location for the much awaited Abba museum has been revealed. It will be housed at a 100 year old customs warehouse, on the south quay of central Stockholm. The building will be renovated , starting early 2008 and its gates will be open for the public sometime in late 2009.

The Stora Tullhuset at Stadsgården in Stockholm will be leased by the Ports of Stockholm to the Abba Museum. The century old landmark, which used to be a customs warehouse, will be only internally renovated by the Ports of Stockholm before the museum is finally filled with the exhibits. "It will be a pearl shining on this quay," said Ulf Westman, one of the founders of the museum. "When you walk out, you should be singing and smiling and wanting to go back in again."

4.000 square metres of pure ABBA fun will be awaiting visitors when the museum finally opens in 2009. The very latest sound, image, multimedia and communications technology will make up the foundation of this "interactive event building" featuring everything concerning the ABBA group. Original costumes, donated by Benny Andersson, Bjorn Ulvaeus, Agnetha Faltskog and Anni-Frid Reuss themselves, archive material, instruments and photographic material are just few of the exhibits to be displayed. Fans will have the opportunity to sing karaoke to the band's music and even record their favourite ABBA songs in a replica studio.

The entire project is estimated to cost around 4.5 million euros which will be mostly covered by sponsors. Admission is expected to be about €22. ABBA have been one of the most successful bands of all times with album sales exceeding 300 million euros. Even though they broke up over 20 years ago, they still sell an astounding total of 3 million cds a year.

Stella Floras

Thanks to Johnny Logan and Hold me now I fell in love with the Eurovision Song Contest, a love that's been going strong ever since with undiminished passion. My first memories date back to 1977 and the lyrics of Rock bottom, Dschinghis Khan and A ba ni bi are still engraved in my brain.

I joined esctoday.com in 2006 as a junior editor after being invited by Barry Viniker, I soon became Senior Editor and during the 2007 contest in Helsinki I was appointed Head of Communications. Today I hold the post of Head of Human Resources and I am proud to be working with the best editorial team in the world.