The ABBA Museum

Since we were planning on being in Stockholm for about a week, we knew there would be days that we wouldn't be able to use our Stockholm Pass.  Fortunately for us, there were things we really wanted to do that weren't available to us on the pass.  One of those things was the ABBA Museum.

Yes, of course!  Only in Stockholm is there an entire museum dedicated to the musical group, ABBA.  Upon entrance to the museum, there is a gift shop to the left, a cafe to the right, and exhibits downstairs.  First a stop to the free lockers.  This is pretty common in Stockholm museums and attractions:  free lockers to keep you from needing to carry your bags with you the entire day.  As you proceed into the exhibit space you are launched into a history lesson on each of the four members of the band, complete with artifacts and information on the artistic backgrounds of each prior to formulating ABBA.  Next, a visual display featuring the many costumes designed for the band.  

If the history of this pop groups doesn't appeal to you, the museum's got you covered.  There's a plethora of interactive experiences to enjoy.  For the techie in us all, a hands-on exhibit allowing you to digitally remaster an ABBA song.  They give you the raw tracks, and you get to decide on all of the levels.  At the end, you are scored on how close your mix was to the original.  

If performance is more your speed, you can karaoke any ABBA song in a sound booth that will rate
your vocal skill according to how close you come to the original recording.  Moreover, you can take the stage and dance with holograms of the group to one of several ABBA song choices.  

For those of you with children, there is a special children's theater featuring an ABBA cartoon that takes children on a journey of the four friends' careers from start to finish.  I am a huge ABBA fan, and so is my partner, so we were both pleased as punch with our experience.  If you feel as though your family is split in terms of their interest in ABBA, you might consider the bonus exhibits.  If you keep going further into the ABBA museum you see a rather large side exhibit dedicated to popular European music through the decades.  My partner is also a great lover of Jazz and found some rather interesting pieces of music history there as well.  

Admission to this museum is 250,00 SEK (about $30 USD).  So, this one is a splurge.  They do have a family ticket option, which can save you some money (good for 2 adults, and up to 4 kids).  I genuinely do love ABBA, so this was well worth the splurge!  

Next, we went for pre-planned splurge #2.  The Absolute Icebar (complete write-up coming soon)...