A little over 18 months ago, I wrote this post. It included the line “I have zero interest in the avatar show (Abba Voyage) aside from curiosity about the technology they’ve used”.
Some of you know that I promptly bought tickets for the “Voyage” show on the first official release date and saw it a week after it opened, so that line aged well.
Fast forward to last December, and the Abba fan club made an announcement that the 27th May 2023 show (exactly one year since “Voyage” opened) would be a special event for fan club members. There was a link to apply for tickets. Knowing that I had only just coped with such a large venue the first time, I decided not to apply.
In the next newsletter, I read that there were still a few tickets available. Not only that, but there were rumours that it was going to be a special ‘surprise’ event. Naturally, fans began speculating that all 4 Abba members would be there… I began to rethink my decision. I was lucky enough to meet 3 original members in the 1990s. But never Frida, my idol. And now if there was a chance to see her…
I thought about getting to the venue alone, and promptly had a panic attack. I decided it wasn’t possible, and worked on convincing myself. Finally I convinced myself when I realised that I had dreamed of meeting Frida for so many years that there was no way it could be anything other than an anticlimax if it DID happen. I might get to see her from a distance, but I certainly wouldn’t get to speak to her. Was it better to risk being disappointed at ‘only’ having a brief view of the woman I modelled myself on for nearly a decade, or to simply not go at all, and thus also avoid the inevitable anxiety of public transport and crowds?
So I decided I definitely wasn’t going to go. I told a friend at work my reasons, and she agreed it made sense.
Then I had a text from my friends Gill and Steve, asking if I was going to come now. I said no, citing the reasons I’ve just mentioned, but… was I making the right choice? Then I received an email from another friend, asking if I was going and mentioning Frida…
I contacted the fan club president, asking if it was still possible to get tickets. However, I decided I wasn’t going to go alone and would only go if someone wanted to travel with me. I asked my oldest friend, knowing she would be my first choice to go with but as she also has sensory processing disorder, thinking she might well say no. And that would have been fine. I still wasn’t sure if I wanted to go, if there were tickets left, if I could cope…
She said yes.
We logged into the ticket site with the fan club code. No seats left together (in fact, only five seats in the entire arena), but one diagonally behind the other in consecutive rows. We looked at each other. We looked back at the seats. Took a deep breath. And…