While Ms Treasure said they haven’t had a chance to crunch any official numbers as yet, she added there were certainly more people who attended this year’s festival than the 25,000 who attended in 2017.

And the millions of dollars the festival pours into the local economy every year, she estimated would also be higher than the $13 million generated last year.

“I would say an estimation of $15 million this year,” she said.

Elvis fans from around Australia and around the world congregated in Parkes for five action-packed days of live music, special events, talks and more, kicking off on Wednesday and running until Sunday.

From Ballarat to Burke, the UK, Japan, Canada and Singapore, fans travelled to rock around the clock and celebrate the King himself.

While bejeweled jumpsuits, Priscilla Presley outfits and poodle skirts are usually the way to go for a Parkes Elvis Festival – there were some very brave fans who rocked leather in the 40 degree heat on Friday for the ‘68 Comeback themed festival this year.

A heavy contingency of celebrity fans also joined in the festivities including model and author Tara Moss, former Olympic swimmer Lisa Curry and rock legend Phil Emmanuel and acclaimed music journalist Glenn A. Baker.

“Parkes Elvis Festival has grown over the years into a truly king-sized celebration and a globally recognised bucket-list event,” Ms Treasure said.

“This weekend I met Elvis fans from all over the world who came out for the festival and enjoyed the very best entertainment Central West NSW has to offer.”

Ms Treasure said a big difference she noticed this year compared to her first year as director in 2017 was how much the crowd was spread out across town.

“I was talking to members from the Parkes Camera Club and they noticed there were so many people in all the different venues,” she said.

“We also noticed there were two shifts of visitors – the first shift were those who got up early, went for a coffee and spent the whole day out at the festival, then went back to their rooms, caravans and tents.

“The second shift were the people who came out in the afternoon and would stay out until 3am.

“There were so many people who visited local businesses which is what it’s all about.”

Another change Ms Treasure discovered was festival goers remained in the park on Sunday, the last day of the event, longer.

“Normally people leave the park after the gospel service around midday, this year they stayed until 4pm,” she said.

“We had a new competition in the park on the Sunday – the unplugged session.”

The unplugged session involved no backing and no costumes were required.

“There was some amazing talent in that unplugged session, I was nearly brought to tears,” Ms Treasure said.

“There was an instrumental version, there was a piano, there was a man whose tambourine was broken but he was pitch perfect.”

Ms Treasure said that was her highlight of this year’s festival.

This year’s festival also featured new additions like a second train coming from Sydney’s Central Station on Thursday – joining the iconic Elvis Express, a midnight show that attracted a good crowd, symposium and sold out shows at the Little Theatre.

There were new lighting towers this year that were funded by Destination NSW and made by local contractors Signs You See and Bosmac.

Anthony Petrucci from Melbourne won the Australian round of the 2018 Ultimate Elvis Tribute Artist Contest and will now travel to Memphis, USA, to represent Parkes at the contest semi-final during Elvis Week in August.

The 2018 Miss Priscilla, Face of the Festival, was awarded to Alex Byrne, of Parkes, on Thursday during the Miss Priscilla Dinner. 

On Saturday, January 13, the town and visitors came out in droves for the Northparkes Mines Street Parade which saw over 10,000 people line the streets to enjoy over 170 Elvis-themed floats, vintage cars, motorcycles, walking groups and marching bands.

And among all the glitz and glamour, and extravagance that is the Parkes Elvis Festival and the hip swinging rockers – there were about 100 very generous volunteers who donated many hours of their days to help make the event run as smoothly as it did.

"We'd like to thank our hardworking volunteers and council staff for helping make this festival a unique and wonderful celebration of The King," Ms Treasure said.

“It was incident free, which is great.”

In 2019 Parkes Elvis Festival will celebrate its 27th year with the theme “All Shook Up”

Parkes Elvis Festival is proudly supported by the NSW Government through its tourism and major events agency, Destination NSW.

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