Abba Museum: Band Members At Stockholm Opening

Nearly four decades after they won the Eurovison Song Contest, Abba fever has returned to Stockholm as fans clamour to visit a new museum devoted to the Swedish pop legends.

Three members of the group, who split up 30 years ago, were in the city for the launch.

Bjorn Ulvaeus, Anni-Frid Lyngstad and Benny Andersson attended a VIP event at the museum ahead of the opening.

The remaining member, Agnetha Faeltskog, was promoting her latest solo album in London and sent a video message of support.

The state-of-the-art museum, located on Stockholm's leafy island of Djurgaarden, allows visitors to get up close and personal with the band - at least interactively.

Some 40 sets of the trademark shiny flares, platform boots and knitted hats are on display in the museum.

Visitors can also see digital images of what they would look like wearing Abba costumes, record music videos and sing such hits as Dancing Queen and Mamma Mia on a stage next to hologram images of the band members.

But the museum also shows a less glamorous, more everyday side of the history of a band that has sold 400 million records and consistently topped the charts for a decade.

The band started out as two married couples and continued performing after their divorces before eventually drifting apart in the early 1980s.

The collection includes models of the band's kitchen, a cottage where they used to compose their songs, and the small, rustic park venues Bjorn and Benny played when they first met in the 1960s.

Visitors can listen to the band members' recollections and one section is dedicated to their break-up and the story of the divorces.

One of the first people to tour the museum was 46-year-old Swede Henrik Ahlen, who lives in London.

He said: "I was eight years old when they won the Eurovision Song Contest (in 1974) and they have always been a part of me.

"I'm so moved, I think it's so fantastic that we get to see the history of Abba."

Like many of the first visitors, most of whom were in their 40s, Mr Ahlen had tears in his eyes as he looked around.

The entrance fee may deter some. At 23 euros (£19.50) a ticket for anyone over the age of eight, a family of four with two children will have to dish out 91 euros (£77).

Die-hard fans, however, have booked up most of the available tickets online for the first few weeks, the lion's share of them from abroad, according to museum officials.

The museum says it expects to attract a quarter of a million visitors in 2013.