From: abba-theconcerts.de
1970/71 – Festfolk
In late 1970 and in the spring of 1971 Agnetha, Frida, Benny and Björn toured with a cabaret show, Festfolk, accompanied by the dance band The Lolas. This show was about 45 minutes. ‘Festfolk’ means ‘party people’. There also was a joke about this name because when written as ‘Fästfolk’ it means ’engaged couples’. Rehearsals for this show began in September 1970 at the hotel (?) Sankt Jörgen.
Before the start of the tour they appeared on the radio show Våra favoriter (taped September 29, broadcast October 3) where they performed Frida’s Barnen sover, Agnetha’s Som ett eko and Björn & Benny’s Hej gamle man! from their upcoming solo album. On October 21 or 22 the TV programme Five Minutes Saloon was taped (broadcast December 13) with them performing on the songs Red Roses For A Blue Lady (chorus only) and California Here I Come. And on October 29-30 this was followed by the TV show I stället för Tarzan (broadcast October 31) possibly performing Hej gamle man!.
They usually performed on or around the weekends. According to Frida the audience varied from 14 to about 400. Especially the Festfolk shows were pretty disappointing and are remembered by the ABBA members as a big desaster, with people ordering their meals and raising their glasses to each other during the show.
"This is the low end of the collaboration between the four of us. [...] Because we were not doing what we were supposed to do. We were singing other people’s songs in a kind of cabaret act. Benny and I were doing a number where we supposed to be two little boys. [...] It was embarrassing, but it was after that tour that we realized, our own songs that's we should do"
Björn in Sunday Night Show Special: Agnetha speaks, Channel 7, Australia, May 2013
"Luckily, the show was never recorded. This was when we learned exactly what we should not be doing".
Björn, Bright Lights, Dark Shadows 2014, p.150
