Helsingborgs Dagblad 110727
By: TOVE HANSSON
When Tommy Körberg and Helen Sjöholm joined the rest of the musicians on stage, the dance floor was already full. Benny Andersson Band sold out at Sofiero where the chairs were close together and the dance floor was frequently used.
Half an hour before the concert there were long queues outside Sofiero.
Ingegerd Berntell rested her legs while her old pharmacy colleagues parked the car.
– All those performing are good, but it’s especially nice with Tommy Körberg, she says.
Inside the area the picnic chairs filled the lawn in front of the stage where Benny Andersson and his musicians entertained for four hours. Around 7000 people watched the concert and many of them had picked up the news that there was a temporary exception to chair ban at Sofiero, due to the recent rains which had made the lawn too wet for blankets.
But yesterday the rain was gone and the sun shone over both dancing and sitting Sofiero visitors.
Sold out again, but because of the dance floor and an area around it that occupied space, it meant a few thousand fewer visitors than the Robyn concert earlier this summer.
However, the audience used the dance area properly. Very front of the stage were an experienced bunch. “BAO trainees” the friends call themselves. They have been in the audience on BAO’s tours for ten years. And we will continue, until we die, they promise.
– It´s the entirety that makes it. This is Sweden’s sixteen best musicians, says Ingrid Björklund.
With their experience, they should be experts in assessing the audience potential.
– We are there to kick off the audience. When you see the audience reaction you notice how it will be. Tonight there are many who are sitting, but I still think it will be fine, said Disa Nordstrom when the performers enter the stage.
And she was right. When Benny Andersson promised fifty bucks to the first pair to dance you could not see which ones were slightly richer. Gudrun Schyman and her partner Jacques Ohlund rushed onto the dance floor, but was challenged by many and soon the dance floor was crowded.
And the glad dancing politician seemed happy with the evening.
“Dancing in Sofiero to Benny Andersson Band. Full speed on the dance floor :-)”, she wrote on Twitter during a dance break.