Parkes Elvis Festival marks 30 years in 2023 but it was nearly 'lost forever' after seven

This particular story, which talks about a festival that nearly wasn't, was to acknowledge the week when we would have usually been welcoming thousands of Elvis Presley fans from across the country and globe but weren't that year in 2021.

2021 would have been our 29th year had it not been cancelled.

But did you know the festival nearly ceased all together in its early days? And would not be anything like it is today without the tireless efforts of a hard working committee and the support of the town?

The Parkes Elvis Revival Festival, as it was then called, began on the second weekend of January - closest to Elvis' birthday on January 8 - 1993.

Numbers were well for the first few years, roughly in the couple of hundreds, but its popularity began to dwindle after seven years and the lack of local support was very obvious.

At the 2000 festival, numbers were down, with some regular Elvis impersonators speaking publicly about how they may not be back.

Organisers turned to the town and said "that unless local support is forthcoming, [the festival is] very much in doubt for future years".

With a competing festival at Morpeth, near Maitland and a small committee, organisers said without support the event could be lost forever.

"We have a really good thing here but it has to be done well - and to do that, we have to have help. Five people cannot do it," organisers said, as published in the January 12, 2000 edition of the Parkes Champion Post.

The following year the festival was held during the town's Australia Day celebrations to coincide with a visit from representatives from Parkes' sister city Coventry in England, which boosted numbers.

Parkes businesses and residents began dressing up for the occasion and Parkes Shire Council hopped on board to help with organisation and promotion.

In 2002 the festival was bigger and the town hasn't looked back since.

2003, according to the Champion Post's front page article on January 13, "huge crowds attended the best festival yet".

In 2019, Parkes had a record-breaking crowd of 27,000 fans and the festival injected more than $13 million into the region's economy.

And now, we are just weeks away from celebrating an incredible 30 years of the festival.

As we countdown to the 30th anniversary of the Parkes Elvis Festival, we're celebrating the milestone by bringing our readers a series of stories that show just how far the festival has come and the people who've made it what it is today.

The series so far: