Within seconds of arriving on stage AbbaMania had the dance floor overflowing at the Fairmont Southampton, and it stayed that way all night for both their Friday and Saturday evening shows.

It was an wonderful spectacle. In the excitement and fun you could almost believe the real Abba had just stepped out of a time machine from the late 1970s and arrived in Bermuda.

Performing as blonde-haired Agnetha, singer Andrea Pressburger's dazzling smile lit up the stage and her charisma carried all the way to the back of the Poinciana Ballroom as Canada-based AbbaMania put on a mesmorising show.

Young and not-so-young came together and shook off their cares, many dancing non-stop to hit-after-hit from the 1970s and early 1980s repertoire of the Swedish supergroup.

For those who could remember the original Abba era, it was an energetic trip down memory lane.

For the younger crowd it was a chance to party along to the songs brought strikingly back into vogue in recent years through the stage show Mamma Mia and subsequent Hollywood movie, and the earlier Australian movie Muriel's Wedding.

On both nights that AbbaMania performed there was no let up in the dancing, bar for Friday evening during 'Summer Night City' which had been preceded by a momentary costume break for the two lead girls, Ms Pressburger and Monica Tietz (appearing as Abba's Anni-Frid).

In the movie 'Jaws', the famous line went "You're gonna need a bigger boat", well at the Poinciana Ballroom this weekend it was more a case of "You're gonna need a bigger dance floor". And that is something Andrew Holmes, Paul Sofianos and John Burcher of event organisers 441 Productions will surely be pondering after scoring such a big hit with AbbaMania, the latest in a string of tribute acts they have brought to the Island.

The ballroom was laid out with a dance floor area immediately in front of the stage, then reserved table seating further back and then general audience seating.

It quickly became evident that many who attended simply wanted to dance. Should Bermuda get lucky enough to have a return visit by AbbaMania it might be an idea to make the dance floor twice as large.

The band consisted of the four Abba look-a-likes (the aforementioned Ms Pressburger and Ms Tietz, joined by Nick Pattison and Mathew Whale as Bjorn and Benny respectively) and a supporting cast of six others.

The backing group of drums, bass, guitar, electric violin and two female singers added a 'fullness' to the sound that got around the problem of recreating on stage the richness of Abba's multi-layered studio sound.

With the stage only a few feet higher than the dance floor it made it difficult to fullly see the choreographed dancing by the 'Abba girls', although a large projection screen to the side of the stage was a welcome addition by the 441 crew, and that allowed the audience further back to note that 'Agnetha' and 'Anni-Frid' were indeed strutting around in authentic knee-high platform boots straight out of the mid-1970s.

As for the songs, the evening opened in electric fashion with 'Dancing Queen' quickly followed by 'Mamma Mia' and progressed through all the Abba's high-energy dance hits, including 'Waterloo' and 'Money, Money, Money'. Indeed, AbbaMania had no need to delve into the slower tracks of Abba's final years.

The sound was authentic, the singing pretty much spot-on. Of all the songs performed only 'I Have A Dream' on the first evening sounded slightly less than Abba-esque.

The harmonies of Ms Pressburger and Ms Tietz were delightful, and Ms Pressburger added to the enjoyment of the evening with her relaxed conversational interaction with the audience as she delivered snippets of Abba trivia in between songs.

'Fernando' proved to be one of the show's highlights. It is AbbaMania's most requested song. The marching drums were played to perfection, as was the electric piano by 'Benny' Mathew Whale on this song and delightfully again on the evocative 'Chiquitita'.

On both evenings a few audience members were invited on stage to sing backing harmonies before the group launched into a storming version of 'Voulez Vous'.

And then it was almost midnight and as the band left the stage it was time, perhaps, for the majority female audience to depart and go looking for their 'Man After Midnight', but not before cries for an encore. To cheers AbbaMania reappeared to reprise their opening number 'Dancing Queen', with almost everyone up dancing, and on Saturday night almost a dozen members of the audience were pulled up on stage – some in 1970s fancy dress – to party through the final number with the band

During the previous evening's show 'Agnetha' Ms Pressburger said the band wanted to take the audience back with them to Canada, then changed her mind and said "No, we'll stay here". Judging by the reception on both nights (with around 800 attending on Saturday), the band won't have to worry about getting supporters for the latter suggestion.