Elvis at Parkes

These banners hang outside the tourist information centre in Parkes. Mostly they advertise the sorts of attractions you might expect to find in a regional centre like Parkes. But ‘Elvis’? For the last 30 years Parkes has hosted an annual Elvis festival in January, filling the town with the King’s music and hundreds of Elvis impersonators. Parkes had no particular connection with Elvis, except a restaurant called Gracelands and an enthusiastic local couple who were Elvis fans. It just grew from there.