From Elvis
The History of CountryLink Parkes Elvis Holiday
The 1st CountryLink Parkes holiday was held on Jan 1993 in the city of Parkes, Central New South Wales. It is located 365 Kilometers west of Sydney, Australia. Many of the eleven thousand towns people are passionate about Elvis Presley but one man in particular is awfully passionate about Elvis.
He was fascinated with the King when he was only five years old, after watching’Love Me Tender’ staring Elvis, that was in 1959. He started his Elvis souvenirs collection at this age. But when he turned 16, he became even more keen about Elvis. In 1997, Neville and his better half Debbie made the trip to ‘Graceland’ the famous home of Elvis in Tennessee, USA, they returned home with 6 suitcases of keepsakes and Neville ‘deed polled’ his legal name to ‘Elvis’ with his mother’s authorization.
Neville and Debbie have a room in their home about the size of a garage that is set up with nothing but Elvis memorabilia. Every year during the CountryLink Parkes holiday, the room is open to the general public to view all of the interesting items he has collected.
The month of Jan was picked for this holiday because it would coincide with Elvis’ birthday of January 8th, and because it was the slow tourism time for the city.
the first year the holiday was given, it only lasted one night and over about a hundred people attended. In the 10 years that followed, one or two more events had been added and a few hundred folk attended annually.
In 2004 and 2005, some new committee members stepped in and had new visions and concepts. Now it has grown to 8,000 people in 2008 that took part in the festival and more than 8,000 attended in 2009. The holiday has grown in many ways, now the holiday starts on Wed. and last thru sunday. The Festival has more than 120 individual events during those 5 days.
The event starts in Sydney on the CountryLink Elvis Express train that takes people to Parkes. They are serenaded by Elvis the entire train trip. Most of the major events are lined up Thu. through sunday, like the ‘Elvis Concert’ and the’Elvis Gospel Church Service’ and lots more.
To keep your memory of the CountryLink Parkes Elvis holiday alive all year, there’s a special calendar you may purchase from www.festivalcalendar.com.au.
Check this out to find out more about Parkes Elvis Festival class and related topics. And we highly recommend this special calendar that comes in handy to keep your memories alive.
Elvis Presley – In the Ghetto(Great Video)
