Saturday 16 February 2013

Hitkrant, 1979: Yvonne meets ABBA! Hitrkant fulfills dream wish

It was the last Hitkrant dream wish in a series of eight: attend the European opening concert of the ABBA tour. This meant: going to Sweden with Hitkrant, attending the concert in Göteborg and meeting ABBA afterwards. Can you imagine how many entries we received? Unfortunately there could only be one winner: Yvonne van der Meulen from Apeldoorn and judging from the enthusiastic thank you note that she wrote us later on, it was clear how much she appreciated her dream wish coming true!

Under the safe accompaniment from cousin Adri, a nervous Yvonne stepped on board of the magnificent Tor Brittania (complete with discotheque and casino!) to make a little trip to Sweden, together with Hitkrant photographer Aad Spanjaard.

After having arrived on Thursday morning, there was a whole day left to have a look around Göteborg and do some shopping. Obviously, this opportunity was made use of eagerly but the major event would be taking place the next day.
That Friday morning, we got permission to attend the soundcheck of the ABBA concert at the Scandinavium in Göteborg and that was already an unexpected surprise for Yvonne!
The surprise got even bigger when she was invited afterwards for a meet and greet with Agnetha, Björn, Frida and Benny. Yvonne wrote in her letter: "Oh my, I was so nervous! I was just shaking with nerves, but they quickly faded away."

Agnetha put her at ease right away and the two lovely dolls that Yvonne had made for Agnetha's children Linda and Christian and the knitwork for Frida had promptly broken the ice!

And then, that same evening: the concert. Yvonne just sat there listening without taking a breath and loved it. The highlight of the evening came when she was invited after the concert to tag along to a cosy fish restaurant for an intimate party. It was very crowded, the fresh shrimps were delicious and Yvonne made use of the opportunity to have the scrapbooks she had brought along signed by the ABBA members!

And although the ABBA happening was done with at this point, there were still three whole days left that were filled with excursions in the surroundings and lots of shopping. In short: for ABBA fan Yvonne (special interest: Agnetha and Björn) this was a trip to never forget!

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