GQ Parkes Elvis Festival
It’s no secret that Hollywood is still Elvis obsessed, but nearly five decades since his death, his spirit lives on in unlikely places. We travelled to the New South Wales town of Parkes, where The King has never left the building.
“I wanted to nail a sign above the front of my office,” says Neil Westcott, the mayor of Parkes in New South Wales. “We don’t do ordinary.”
But had you made the drive to the town about five hours west of Sydney this past January, you probably wouldn’t have needed much signage to tell you things were slightly unusual. The rhinestones would have been a clue. Because for more than three decades, the annual Parkes Elvis Festival has turned this regional hub of nearly 15,000 people into an all- singing, all-dancing kaleidoscope of Elvis enthusiasm that now attracts more than 25,000 visitors.
Westcott was elected last September, following an epic 17-year stint by his predecessor, Ken Keith, but he has been a councillor for many years. He has also lived in Parkes for all of his life, and when he’s not tending to his official duties – which recently included sporting a handsome electric-blue, bedazzled jumpsuit – he is a fifth-generation farmer, growing mostly canola, wheat and barley on a property he manages with his son. “It’s 6000 acres,” he says, “so that takes a bit of time, I’ll tell you.”
But so, too, does planning the Elvis spectacular, which has become more or less a year-long project, with 200 events spanning five days. The town’s position on the main western New South Wales rail line has also meant that visitors can now make their way to the festival on the so-called Elvis Express, a direct service from Sydney.
All this begs the question: what connection does the town have to Elvis Presley himself ? The simple answer is, well, none. Not directly, anyway. The story of the Parkes Elvis Festival really begins with local couple Bob and Anne Steel, a pair of Elvis fans who opened a restaurant called Gracelands in the town in 1981. A decade later, they decided to commit to a rock’n’roll theme, in honour of their idol, and that same year proposed a festival timed around Elvis’s birthday on January 8, when the quieter post- holiday period had the potential to help bring visitors out to Parkes. The local tourism board was keen, even if the idea was originally met with some resistance from locals, to put it mildly.
But the Steels pushed on, holding an event at Gracelands restaurant in 1992 that drew 195 people. Many of those came from interstate, but it also unearthed a handful of local Elvis fans. One was Steve Lennox, who entered the lookalike competition in a white Elvis-in-Vegas-style jumpsuit created by his wife, Debby. Lennox won both the competition and a place in Parkes’s history books. And there’s no denying his commitment to the role; he has since legally changed his name to Elvis.
Westcott might be relatively new to his official mayoral duties, but as with Parkes, his connection to the festival runs deep. “I’ve been involved for 22 years of it,” he says, explaining that he originally participated as a member of the local gospel service. “I remember standing with 300 people jammed into the church hall, as I’m singing an Elvis gospel song. As we were driving home, my wife said to me, ‘I think we need to move to a bigger space’.”
Despite a few lean years, which included an almost biblical series of misfortunes for the district – bushfires followed by floods and then more bushfires – things eventually bounced back, not least of all thanks to the local rugby team, the Parkes Boars, who, after some refreshments at the local pub, took part in the main parade. “They marched up the main street and it really caught the media attention,” recalls Westcott. “Things seemed to go ballistic from then.”
“I thought it was a great idea,” rugby captain Wayne Osborne said in a 2021 documentary about the festival. “Obviously we’d seen the opportunity to drink a lot of grog and dress up in silly clothes, so that was right down our alley.”
By 2005 the event had expanded to include Cooke Park in the centre of town, drawing some 3500 people from across Australia and even overseas. Then the following year, a special guest made an appearance for the first time: Greg Page, better known as the original Yellow Wiggle and himself an avid Elvis fan. At one stage Page had the world’s fourth-largest collection of Presley artefacts and memorabilia.
“To go to Parkes and see the town transform, from 2006 to how it is now, has just been phenomenal,” Page says.
“There was no connection to Elvis other than a group of people who thought he was the bee’s knees. But they’ve turned it into something that’s regarded around the world as one of the best festivals. I have been to Elvis Week in Memphis and that is obviously the pinnacle but I think the Parkes Elvis Festival is certainly up there.”
This year’s theme was Jailhouse Rock – named after the 1957 Elvis film and song whose dance routine has been called the singer’s “greatest moment on screen” – and included everything from dance classes and live performances through to movie screenings, exhibitions and the famed Elvis street parade, which featured Mayor Westcott for the first time in his official capacity. “That was pretty unique. I walked the streets and had a chat to [locals] to see how Elvis was affecting our local businesses,” says Westcott.
“I put my blue jumpsuit on on the Wednesday morning and I think I took it off on Monday. We became great mates.”
In the years since his first visit, Page has hosted events, judged the prestigious Ultimate Elvis Tribute Artist Contest, and performed live (albeit out of costume) at the festival. His greatest contribution, though, is through The King’s Castle, a museum in Parkes that houses Page’s own personal Elvis collection, an obsession that began after a trip to Graceland in Memphis.
“I wouldn’t have called myself a fan of Elvis. But when I went to Graceland and walked through his house, you very much feel a connection to his story,” he says, adding that seeing a wall of cheques the superstar had made out to local charities (Presley would reportedly make at least 50 donations of $1000 – a substantial amount in the 1970s – to charitable organisations each year) offered a fresh perspective on who the performer was when he was away from the spotlight. “There is so much more to somebody like Elvis than just being a superstar; he’s actually a really fascinating person. To come from a poor background and become this megastar, but also have this really caring and compassionate side, I think that’s the thing that did it for me,” Page says. “As well as appreciating his music, finding out more about him is what captivated me.”
Needless to say, the former Wiggle is hardly alone. Although Elvis passed away in 1977, before many of the Parkes festival attendees were even born, in many ways he has never been more present. Two years ago, Australian director Baz Luhrmann brought his trademark more-is-more approach to Presley’s life through big-screen blockbuster Elvis, which more than tripled its $85 million budget at the box office and received eight Oscar nominations, including Best Picture and Best Actor for its star Austin Butler. So dedicated was Butler to his character that he reportedly found himself trapped in a perpetual Elvis drawl for more than three years, a predicament that required the talents of a professional dialect coach to help restore his natural speaking voice.
Last year, another Aussie Elvis connection arrived in theatres courtesy of Saltburn actor Jacob Elordi, who starred alongside American newcomer Cailee Spaeny in Sofia Coppola’s Priscilla. The film, which premiered at the Venice Film Festival, was based on Priscilla Presley’s 1985 memoir Elvis and Me and offered an art house counterpoint to the razzle-dazzle of Luhrmann’s vision. It also presented a much less flattering picture of the superstar performer, one whose off-screen persona was at times distant and even volatile. All this is to say that Elvis has never really left the building. Last year, Presley’s granddaughter, the actor and filmmaker Riley Keough was granted sole ownership of Graceland itself and the family’s stake in Elvis Presley Enterprises, which still brings more than $100 million per year. It’s a figure that has no doubt only grown in recent years, given the renewed Hollywood interest.
So what is it about Elvis that still burns so strong? Speaking to Elvis fans, it’s all kinds of things. The music, obviously, but also the hip shaking, the cultural impact, the chance to throw on a Lycra jumpsuit and transport yourself back in time. The King might have passed away at the age of 42, but he packed a lot in, churning out some 31 movies, 22 studio albums and hundreds of original recordings. Almost 47 years after his death, he is still the best-selling solo artist of all time. Page hasn’t watched either of those recent biopics about Elvis. But then again, he doesn’t really need to. Spending years immersed in the life of the man himself – and having met some of Presley’s close friends – he’s been lucky enough to get the story straight from the source, without the Hollywood filter.
“Elvis was the original American idol and there will never be another one like him,” says Page of The King’s enduring appeal. “He’s the whole package: he could sing, he had the good looks, the charisma. He’s timeless in a sense. I think that’s really where the strength of Elvis lies.” Often it’s the big costumes that get a lot of attention: Page once owned a bedazzled six-foot cape that Presley was supposed to wear in his Aloha from Hawaii Via satellite TV special in 1973, but which was so laden with rhinestones that it almost pulled the singer over backwards and had to be hastily redesigned. But Presley’s allure is about the sheer breadth of his musical and visual output produced in the course of his career and its impact on pop culture. There’s his time in the army, the Hollywood years, his comeback in the late ’60s or his performances in the 1970s when he was supported by the famed TCB Band, which is Page’s own favourite Elvis era.
“Elvis’s voice had matured a lot by that stage and he had a real richness and depth,” he says. “That’s really what I enjoy about that period, and a lot of the songs he covered from other artists, he really made his own. For me, that’s the peak.” For Westcott, it’s Presley’s gospel songs that draw him in. But in what feels more and more like a divided world, perhaps the truth is that the thing Elvis offers is really quite simple: something for everyone. The jumpsuits, the music, the man, the legend, the festivals he’s inspired in Parkes and all around the world. The King lives on because in many ways he never went away.
“The festival is almost unique in that it’s as though a [negative] element just doesn’t seem to exist,” says Westcott. “I think that comes from the generosity of spirit that Elvis projected through his life and the fact that the friendliness of the town continues to seep into the festival. You can get dressed up as Elvis or Priscilla and enjoy a bit of escapism for a few days. It is really quite a friendly and wonderful event. To quote The Castle, it had a lovely vibe.” Planning is already well under way for 2025, but the sequins won’t get much of a rest this year, either. The next focus is a tribute to another landmark 1970s act: the Trundle ABBA Festival, which will be coming to the tiny town in Parkes Shire in October. This year’s event is celebrating 50 years since the Swedish megagroup’s historic Eurovision win and Westcott says “it’s expected to be massive”. But then again, we’d assume nothing less from the good folk of Parkes. As the mayor says, they don’t do ordinary.
A version of this story with additional exclusive imagery will appear in the March/April 2024 issue of GQ Australia exclusively available in The Australian on Friday, March 8 with the title “A Burning Love”
To join the conversation, please log in. Don't have an account? Register
Join the conversation, you are commenting as Logout