Working at ABBAWORLD

Since mid-December I’ve been lucky enough to work as a volunteer at ABBAWORLD at the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney.

The Powerhouse Museum, like many similar institutions, has a large volunteer workforce. When ABBAWORLD was announced late last year the call went out for ABBA fans to work as volunteers at the exhibition, to help visitors, answer questions and share their knowledge and love of ABBA.

Many ABBA fans answered the call, with fans working almost every day of the week for the duration of the exhibition, which is scheduled to close on March 6th [update: now closing June 26th].

It’s a fan’s dream come true, to get to work all day talking about ABBA, listening to ABBA music, watching ABBA videos (including all those exclusive interviews) and hanging out close and personal with ABBA’s costumes and other artefacts. It’s so enjoyable to see so many visitors having so much fun.

And if you visit ABBAWORLD, say hello to the fan volunteers. They’re the ones wearing the badge that says “ABBA question? Ask Me”.

ABBAWORLD Sydney seeks volunteers and shop workers

VOLUNTEER IN THE POWERHOUSE MUSEUM: Want to share your love of ABBA with ABBAWORLD visitors? We are looking for volunteers to help enrich visitors’ experience. Volunteers will provide excellent customer service by: welcoming and directing visitors; sharing their specialist knowledge of ABBA; assisting visitors with the use of the exhibition’s interactives; and assisting visitors to move smoothly through the exhibition. If this sounds like you, and you have some time to spare time from January 2011, email us at volunteercentre@phm.gov.au  

WORK IN THE POWERHOUSE SHOP: Interested in working in the ‘ABBA’ Powerhouse Museum shop for the duration of the exhibition? A limited number of sales assistant roles are now available. Please send your short resume to shop@phm.gov.au  

If you sign up at www.powerhousemuseum.com/abbaworld we’ll be sure to keep you updated on the latest news about the exhibition!

ABBAWORLD around the world

After stints in London and Melbourne ABBAWORLD  is spreading out across the globe, opening at ETO Park in Györ, Hungary on December 4th, and at the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney, Australia on December 17th.

ABBAWORLD is the fully interactive ABBA exhibition, endorsed by the four members. It includes original ABBA costumes, recreations of their Polar Music office, studio, backstage dressing room, Björn and Benny’s songwriting hut, gold records, personal items, new interviews with the Frida, Benny, Björn, Agnetha and many of their collaborators, plus interactive features including ABBA sing-along, Dance with ABBA, and the popular Perform with ABBA, where you perform on stage with a 3D hologram version of the group. Visitors can download their interactive experiences afterwards from the ABBAWORLD website.

Questions have  been asked how the exhibition can be in two cities at the same time. Most of the exhibition is especially constructed – the displays, interactive elements, audio guides, etc. Of the original ABBA artifacts there are enough costumes, gold records, awards, instruments, etc to make a satisfactory display for several simultaneous exhibitions.

There were already differences between London and Melbourne. In Melbourne the exhibition covered three floors, which made for a different arrangement to London’s single level. Melbourne had less costumes than London, but added some different ones. Melbourne included more Australian content, including more local gold records, memorabilia, and fan stories.

The Hungarian website details the 16 (rather than 25) rooms of the exhibition there. It appears that most of the major elements are there, with some rooms merged together, such as the albums being in one room rather than individual rooms for each.

Tickets for ABBAWORLD Györ are on sale now, tickets for ABBAWORLD Sydney go on sale soon. See the website abbaworld.com for full details, links for tickets, and of course the full ABBAWORLD interactive experience.