Lisa Taylor-Timson

I went yesterday with my husband for my 17th wedding anniversary. The negatives:- Most drinks on offer are alcoholic. We are sober so do not drink. The only other option we found in the crowded bars was a bottle of refillable water. It was priced at nearly £6. Food was expensive but this is what you expect in London so we didn't eat anything there. There is a gift shop outside the arena but it was mostly full of overpriced tat. So we came home without any souvenir's. There is no interval so everyone wants the toilet afterwards. The dancefloor is very crowded and therefore if you are on the shorter side you are going to attract tall people who like to stand in front of you the whole show, and not see a whole lot of anything. I did not like it when some of my favourite songs were animations instead of the avatars. I went to see Abba. Not animations. The show is really expensive considering you are not seeing for real anyone famous. With that in mind they should not have copped out on some songs and put animations and videos for some of them. It made it feel as you had been ripped off more. I did not like the video of the Eurovision song contest in lieu of avatars performing the song. That felt like a kick in the teeth. It's very crowded trying to get out of the place and queues for clokerooms are filled with drunk people touching you and wanting to dance and invade your personal space. I have ADHD so this was very overwhelming to me. The positives:- If I knew no better I would have come out believing I had seen Abba in the flesh. I cannot describe how realistic this is. This blew me away. The show started with my favourite Abba song which clearly a lot of people didn't know however it delighted me. The show has a lot of songs, much more than you would get if a band was performing live. The lighting and effects blew me away. There are shelves around the dancefloor to put glasses and drinks. Conclusion: Amazing experience. The arena is cold and pools of water inside the bar areas and near the toilets as it is not roofed fully. Lots of drunk people as most drinks on offer are alcohol. I would have hoped for more soft drinks smoothies or healthier alcohol alternatives like CBD drinks or nootropics. It does feel like you are seeing Abba perform when they use the avatars. My brain could not comprehend they were not real. The only downside is the closeups of avatars make it very plain they aren't real as the lip sync is not great. Other than that would recommend. To the venue. It is overpriced for a pre recorded show. It should be cheaper considering animations incorporated into it. I didn't pay to watch old videos or animations. I wanted a live concert experience.