Almanac Music: Parkes Elvis Festival 2025

Two plus one days, and three towns ago
We reached the Parkes Elvis Festival

I know why we’d come, to have lots of fun
With music, and to meet some friends of old.  *

 

Two motorcycles, three days and two nights on the road to get to Parkes by Wednesday 8th of January. That is 867 kilometres from Colac, Victoria to Parkes, NSW.  I’m usually fastidious when it comes to having plenty of fuel in my tank, but I nursed my bike into Narrandera with virtually an empty tank. 18.67 litres pumped in, to fill a 19-litre tank.  Close call!  Marlene’s bike is a little more fuel efficient than mine, she had about 2 litres left in her tank.

 

 

 

 

Parkes Elvis Festival is a five-day event, starting on the Wednesday closest to Elvis’s birthday and ending on the Sunday, with a gospel service and some finale shows. This would have been Elvis’s 90th birthday, if he were still alive. To the population that invaded Parkes, Elvis is very much alive.  How can one person, who died nearly fifty years ago, be the centre of the biggest Elvis Festival in the southern hemisphere?

 

Marlene and myself got to Parkes around midday Wednesday. We had just missed the opening ceremony up at the replica Gates of Graceland near the Tourist Information Centre. This year Frankie J Holden attended the opening and was inducted into the Wall of Fame next to the Gates.

 

We found our accommodation, (approximately two kilometres from the town) unpacked, and rode back down the street to get a feel of the layout of the venues.   The festival had changed a lot since we had been here in 2011.

 

The biggest change was the beautiful performance stage now permanently erected in Cooke Park.  The Park is a really nice venue.  There is also a statue of Elvis in the Park, which is based on his appearance in the 1970 award winning documentary That’s the Way It Is.  It also has quotes by Elvis embedded into the brick paving around the sculpture.

 

 

 

 

Every year is a different theme.   This year the theme was based on the movie Easy Come, Easy Go.  I have to admit that I have never seen this film. But the theme was reflected in the women being dressed in red and white striped tops, and many men and women wearing navy styled caps.

 

There were many stalls around Cooke Park selling Elvis souvenirs, and also Elvis Central up the street, selling official Elvis merchandise. I wonder how much money Elvis Presley Enterprises in the States make out of this festival?

 

Wednesday afternoon was a little too hot to be riding around on motorcycles, so we made our way back to our accommodation. We got a ride back into town with an Elvis Tribute Artist (ETA) who was staying at our location also.  His name was Tristan James.  We had tea at the Chinese restaurant near the Parkes Leagues Club, and then looked around the streets and shops.  All the retailers are fantastic at embracing the Elvis theme with their shop windows and displays. We walked part of the way back ‘home, but we were picked up by a generous local.  We would still be walking around, as I found the streets ending in dead ends.

 

Thursday morning, we started walking into town, and yet again a local picked us up and dropped us off into town.  Parkes friendliness would shine out for the duration of the festival.

 

Coffee time, and a twenty-minute wait, but no complaints.  We were not going to miss out.  After coffee, we were reunited with some friends (John and Jeanette and daughter Emma) I had met two Octobers ago (2023) in the States while I was on an Elvis Tour (organised by Jim Porter).  This was one half of “(You’re Lookin’ for) Trouble”. It was great to meet up again.  We would also meet up with others from that trip in 2023. We made the Leagues Club our base for the day.

 

The new sensation we were looking for was Colac’s own Charlie Gaylard.  His performance to pre-recorded music was a hit with everyone at the Leagues Club.  Sixteen years old, great voice, and great selection of songs, not normally the repertoire of your typical ETA.

 

 

 

 

Charlie is probably responsible for me becoming an ETA convert. Prior to this festival, I viewed such people as just Elvis Impersonators, and many very poor at that.  But these new breed ETAs are really keeping Elvis and his music alive.   Quote from podcast “We shouldn’t make the mistake of writing off a great artist because of the clatter that came later.”  

 

John Jeannette and Emma had to head back to Forbes where they were staying.  We stayed on at the Cooke Park stage and watched the Fenech father and son ETAs and another fellow doing Tom Jones covers very well.  A great evening’s entertainment.

 

A taxi back to our digs and that was our second day over.

 

The next morning, we noticed more people at the house where we were staying.  I think we are heading for a world record for the number of people staying in one suburban house.

 

Not to be deterred we headed to the tourist info center about a kilometre away to take a look at the Elvis themes there.  The replica Gates look great, and the Wall of Fame has notable Australian performing artists acknowledged, Frankie J Holden being the latest one.  We also did a tour of Greg Page’s (Wiggles) Elvis’s memorabilia, but it did not seem to have as much as I remembered from the last time I saw it.

 

We then waited for the shuttle bus to take us into town.  The shuttle schedule seemed to be out. Finally, we got into town, and met up with Val and Di, the other two I befriended from the 2023 trip.  It was equally great to meet up with them.

 

After a coffee break, we tracked down the Forbes crew.  There was now a stage in the middle of the street, and Charlie Gaylard was one of the performers.  It was his 16^th birthday, and the crowd had sung happy birthday to him.   He was very humble about it.   His performance was typically brilliant, using lesser-known songs to woo the crowd.

 

For the afternoon, we had tickets booked for a performance with three ETAs at the Parkes Service club (upstairs).  The three performers were again very good and very professional. They were Dean Vegas, Toki and Stuey V.  Toki was a Japanese performer, whose English was limited, but his singing was fine.   It was quite funny when he spoke between songs.  He was cute.   After the show we had a few photos taken.  John knew Dean Vegas personally, and we got to talk to him for a while.

 

From there, the girls migrated to the Cooke Park stage to listen and dance to the Blues Brothers tribute.  The men took a break, and listened from afar.  When this performance had finished, we found a fish and chips shop to have some food.  It wasn’t that flash.

 

By this time, we had all decided to do our own thing.  We wandered up to the Coachman Hotel which is super buzzy. Jack Gatto was performing and had the crowd pumping.  He brought Charlie Gaylard on for a couple of songs.

 

Then we caught a taxi home as we were pretty tired, and needed energy for the remaining days.

 

Saturday morning, an early start and Jim drove us into town. We needed to find a position for the parade.  We grabbed some chairs from Cooke Park and carted them to a spot on the main street to watch the parade.  The others arrived, so we had a very good view and a very good spot.

 

The participants in the parade consisted of performers, vintage vehicles, motorcycles, floats, marching bands, dancers, Priscillas, Elvis’s and more.  It was very entertaining.

 

Lunch was at the Railway Hotel.  Nicest feed so far.

 

The library was open and exhibiting a photo exhibition of previous festival.  This was really good to go through.  The standout image, for me, was not a photo, but a portrait of Elvis made from pieces of Rubik’s Cubes.

 

 

 

 

The heavens opened up at this time, and the options for entertainment became dramatically less as they had to cancel the outside venues, including the Cooke Park stage.  Charlie G was to perform there in the evening with a full band, but was cancelled.  Pity.

 

The Coachman was pumping again and a young fellow called Tennessee Tajc (I think that was his real name) was the standout performer.

 

With the rain literally putting a damper on some shows, I was at a loss as to where to go.  I went back to the Leagues club but was uninspired by the acts there.

 

By this time, I had heard enough versions of ‘Sweet Caroline’ that I was starting to take a dislike to this song.  It made me appreciate when ETAs did songs not familiar to the general public.

 

I made my way home, dropping in on a few hotels on the way.  Marlene stayed behind to find her own entertainment.

 

Back at our accommodation, I had a talk to Jim and a few others.  I went to bed at a reasonable hour as I wanted to get to the gospel show early in the morning.

 

On Sunday morning, we were both up bright and early, and grabbed a taxi into town.  We wanted to get good seats for the gospel service in Cooke Park.  We also reserved a few seats for our friends, who were arriving on shuttles from out of town.

 

The service was much like a church service, but a little more informal, with quotes from the Bible and lots of performers.   Charlie Gaylard was the first performer, with a beautiful version of ‘I Believe’.  This young fellow has a big future ahead of him, not just as an ETA, but I’m sure he could make it in his own right.

 

 

 

 

Many other ETAs contribute to the service with brilliant interpretations of gospel numbers that Elvis had previously recorded, plus there was an interesting modern parable from a former navy chaplain.

 

After the gospel service the stage hosted a group of also-ran ETAs, which was huge fun.   Some of the ‘performers’ were up there just for a dare, performing with a full-on professional rock band.  Out of these, there was a ‘winner’.   This was not meant to be the big prize.

 

The big prize, the Ultimate ETAs had already competed for the main prize yesterday.   The winner was a Josuel Grech from Malta, proving that this festival is a truly internationally recognised festival.  For more details as to winners of various categories check Here.

 

We then headed up to the Leagues Club to catch what was happening.  As we got there, Charlie Gaylard, was singing.   But he had to finish with just one song as his voice was gone.   He spent a lot of time with the people in the audience, having his photo taken.   Other ETAs had also lost their voices by the weekend.

 

Our last stop, was back at the Cooke Park Stage, where the winning UETA, Josuel, (and runners-up) was presented to a rapturous crowd.    Before we knew it, the chairs were being packed up around us.   There were still other programs and performances going on at the various clubs and pubs.

 

However it was time to say goodbye to our friends, who were staying at Peak Hill and Forbes.   Hopefully we will catch up with each other before too long and before the next Parkes Festival.  We caught a taxi back to our accommodation, and started packing the bikes for the long haul back home.

 

There is something to say about the power of music.  I have made lasting friends through the music of Elvis.  My tastes in music are pretty eclectic.  I like to listen to rock’n’roll, folk, country, blues etc.  I have overseas friends because of Bruce Springsteen concerts.  I have also made friends through music festivals such as the Port Fairy Folk Festival  (which I recommend) and the New Orleans Jazz Fest (been there twice).   Music is great.  Music is needed for the soul.  Music, music, music.

 

Heading back Monday, on the first of three legs of our trip, we met up with some familiar faces at Narrandera and had a talk while we refueled the bikes and ourselves.  These same beautiful people saw us parked in a rest zone, turned around and came back.  We were having a drink break, and they came back to see if we were alright.   How good is that!

 

 

 

The rest of our trip was safe and uneventful.  Would we go back?  Hopefully, yes if we can find accommodation. Would we do it on motorbikes again? Most definitely. It’s a great way to travel.   Would we recommend the festival to others?  Most definitely.

 

Parkes Elvis Festival 2025. Thankyouverymuch! Parkes Elvis Festival 2026, yes please!

 

Finally sang too many Elvis Presley songs
We packed our bikes and headed for home
As we rode on through the heat, listening to the beat

Of our bikes, along the winding road.  *

* To the tune of “Kentucky Rain”

 

Glossary of definitions (for the uninitiated)

 

Elvii                 More than one Elvis

ETA                  Elvis Tribute Artist

UETA               Ultimate Elvis Tribute Artist

 

 

All images S & M Kluzek 

 

 

Read the story Stan wrote when his sister met Elvis Here.

 

Read more from Stan Kluzek Here.

 

 

Read more stories from Almanac Music  HERE

 

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