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All shook up: How Elvis keeps Aussie outback town alive
PARKES, Australia, Jan 23, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – Once a year Parkes, a sleepy
mining town in rural Australia, explodes into colour and song — a veritable
Graceland in the outback hosting a five-day extravaganza to celebrate ‘the
King’.
Die-hard fans don their polyester jumpsuits, thick black wigs and gold-
coloured necklaces, hopping on the “Elvis Express” and “Blue Suede Express”
trains to the event, now billed as the southern hemisphere’s biggest tribute
to the superstar.
The town’s transformation extends beyond the superficial — organisers
estimate this year’s Parkes Elvis Festival generated Aus$13 million (US$9.3
million) for the local economy as more than 27,000 people visited attending
some 200 themed events.
“It’s just crazy,” said North Parkes Motel owner Andrew Porter of the
frenzied growth in tourists.
“It’s just gotten busier and busier over the years. It’s helped the whole
economy,” he added.
Elvis, who died in 1977 aged 42, never travelled to Australia and the
event, held to coincide with his January birthday, runs at the height of
summer when temperatures top 40 degree Celsius (104 Fahrenheit).
But neither fact deters the fans: What was a sleepy summer period has
turned into full occupancy during the festival. Accommodation is fully booked
years in advance, caravan parks fill up quickly and sporting fields are
packed with tents.
“A lot of people do come here and they spend a hell of a lot of money. I
know that for a fact,” said Elvis Lennox, who changed his name from Neville
Steven and has a huge collection of memorabilia that he exhibits in a private
museum.
– Return to splendour –
Parkes, which is some 300 kilometres (190 miles) west of Sydney, began as
a gold-mining town before becoming a flourishing farming community.
But by the 1990s, it and similar rural towns began to struggle as
agricultural work declined.
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Keen to draw in more customers during the quiet summer, when even
townsfolk flee to the coast to get relief from the heat, restaurant owners
Bob and Anne Steel organised a birthday party for their idol.
The first Elvis celebration in 1993 drew 200 participants, and the Steels
had so much fun they made it an annual event.
At first there was little impact on the local economy, town mayor Ken
Keith said. But as visitor numbers rose, so did revenues.
Parkes is now so full that towns up to two-and-a-half hours drive away
have started to cash in by offering accommodation and transport for revellers
who missed out on a place to stay near the festival.
“They get up at 5am, travel to Parkes to be here at 7am, leave here to go
back after shows at midnight. It’s a big toll but they do it. It’s Elvis
himself that’s drawing them here,” Lennox added.
The New South Wales state government is projecting an injection of Aus$43
million into the wider region surrounding Parkes this year due to the
festival, a much-needed source of income amid a severe drought.
– Elvis lives? –
While locals still get work from the farming, mining and transport sectors
throughout the year, the event has helped develop Parkes’ service economy —
and its numbers.
The population has increased by four percent to around 12,000 in the past
decade, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, in sharp contrast
to the declining or static trend in other regional and rural towns.
Parkes has become a model for how rural regions can re-invent themselves,
said University of Wollongong human geography expert Chris Gibson.
Inspired by the success, other small towns have started their own events
such as the ABBA Festival in nearby Trundle and the Bob Marley Festival in
Kandos, said Gibson, who has compiled a database of some 2,800 festivals
across the country.
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The Elvis festival has a uniquely Australian flavour.
“We don’t take ourselves too seriously,” said Keith, decked out in a sky
blue jumpsuit, aviator sunglasses and pompadour wig as he danced with
jumpsuit-clad Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack ahead of the event’s
street parade.
This extends to the sporting field with another regular fixture — a rugby
game — featuring teams of Elvis look-alikes all wearing copies of his
trademark white jumpsuit.
“The festival’s celebrating an artist who has never visited Australia, let
alone Parkes, in the depth of the summer heat where it’s really quite
uncomfortable to wear polyester jumpsuits,” explained Gibson.
“So that invites a sense of playfulness that’s really part of why it works
so well.”
A growing number of young people are attending the event, but more than
half of festival-goers are aged 55 or older.
“Some women have come out, tears in their eyes. And I said, ‘What’s the
matter?’, and they said, ‘He’s not dead, he’s alive, you can see him in
there!’,” Lennox told AFP of visitors to his museum.
“I said ‘Yes, I know, we try to keep him alive as much as possible. He’ll
never die while we’re alive.'”
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