Kelly Hendry talks about her crucial role as tourism manager that saved the Parkes Elvis Festival

It was 2002 - she stood in Cooke Park watching a Japanese TV crew film a segment with an Elvis eating soba noodles made with buckwheat from Parkes.

Buckwheat Enterprises or Bio-Oz in Parkes has been exporting buckwheat to the Japanese noodle market since the 1970s.

"My first thoughts were this is a particularly unique event that has potential and really piqued interest from afar," Kelly said.

"However the festival at that stage was very small, the majority of it held at Bushmans Dam with a truck as a stage, and it needed a big lift to reach its potential.

"Despite the best efforts of the rugby club who loved the festival from its inception and would take a road trip to Sydney and raid every dress up shop from Broadway west to Parkes back in the pre-online days to ensure they were decked out in jumpsuits and were the life of the party."

While the former tourism and destination development manager is very modest about it, those who have been involved in the festival since the beginning will tell you the crucial role Kelly played in taking the festival to the next level.

Kelly arrived in Parkes from Smithfield, Sydney as a fresh-faced tourism university graduate who landed a job as tourism coordinator with Parkes Shire Council in 2001.

With the full support of Parkes Shire Council and Parkes' Tourism Board, which included hoteliers, bed and breakfast operators and councillors, Kelly said she threw herself forward to see if she could provide some assistance to the voluntary festival committee.

"I had the blessing of council and then Mayor Robert Wilson who told me to 'go and help them', and Ken Keith, our current mayor, was deputy then and chair of the Tourism Board," Kelly said.

"I started attending the Elvis Revival Incorporated meetings to see where we could provide support.

"The festival was at crisis point, they were in the red. And I heard them saying they needed to do a lamington drive and sell raffle tickets so they could pay back Bob and Anne [Steel] (festival founders)."

What didn't help was the silence in the main street and shops closing early, showing no signs that there was even a festival on.

Initially Kelly said it was the broad media coverage from Sydney outlets and the grant writing they were able to leverage.

The festival became a Regional Flagship Event with Tourism NSW, now known as Destination NSW, who still support the event to this day.

"We had one year of funding and it was very successful," Kelly said.

"It brought those connections and networking, and a level of professionalism to the festival.

"We never let an opportunity pass us by. There was a new passenger train service introduced between Parkes and Broken Hill around 2004 and on its maiden voyage, I asked the then CountryLink rail representatives whether they would consider providing a passenger train service to the festival and met with them on multiple occasions to persuade them that it was a great idea.

"And so the Elvis Express was born.

"We had about eight passengers the first year," Kelly laughed.

"But suddenly we had a link with Sydney which was invaluable. It provided a vital transport link for visitors, in addition to opening a connection with Sydney and affording the festival a media stage at Sydney's Central Station.

"Sydney news and morning show crews could easily get to Central Station and obtain fabulous vision and an insight to the festival being held 400km west of there."

And such is the country welcome to festival goers over the years that the train arrival has become an event in itself, requiring signage, traffic and pedestrian management and a DJ.

Everything just went from there, Kelly said, and the festival and the attention it created continued to grow.

Ongoing funding helped the team to produce an Elvis Festival brand and develop a merchandise line, which was another revenue stream.

More events were added - reaching 200 in previous years, and now for the 30^th anniversary in January it will be 350 - and a more official program was developed.

An Elvis Festival coordinator was appointed with Ellie O'Donoghue nee Ruffoni the first to step into the role in 2008. Now council employs two full-time festival staff - a festival marketing and sponsorship officer and an Elvis Festival director, previously Cathy Treasure who comes from nearby Cowra with a CV spanning major events around the world and is now the visitor economy and major events specialist, handing the baton over to Tiffany Steel, the daughter of the festival founders Bob and Anne.

"When the festival bloomed and developed too many moving parts, the volunteer committee asked for council's greater assistance to fully take ownership and run it," Kelly said.

"Even though the festival has grown exponentially in its success, many of the events are free, with no direct income to council for the festival delivery budget, so we still need to make ends meet."

The growth in visitation saw them get more creative with accommodation outlets, creating a tent city, pop-up camp grounds and an impressive home hosting program that was developed long before Air BnB.

"We started to think outside the box," Kelly said.

"As the festival grew, so too did Parkes Shire Council's contribution. We required extra hands to answer phones, provide visitor information, sell merchandise, establish traffic and pedestrian management plans, close roads, service amenities, empty bins, open and close venues, manage stages, bump in market stalls, ferry Elvii - the collective noun for Elvis' - around and much more.

"Today, most of the staff at council have a role in the festival, no matter how small.

"Grader driver Al Gersbach is excused from plant duties for the week to assume his alter ego 'Alvis' where he chooses his finest Elvis threads and jewels, has his hair done at the salon and pounds the pavement, meeting and greeting visitors in the main street and performing media duties as a festival icon.

The festival continues to attract attention from around the world and has been the subject of two documentaries, including 'Elvis Lives in Parkes' which showcases the event's humble beginnings and has been broadcast internationally. The festival has an official affiliation with Elvis Presley Enterprises in the USA, an endorsement Kelly said the festival is very proud of.

Australian singer and former yellow Wiggle of the children's band, Greg Page approached council in 2009, looking for a home for his extensive private Elvis collection. Greg was familiar with Parkes having a former family connection with the town, and the King's Castle museum was established.

"The Elvis Festival was growing in popularity and reputation," Kelly said.

"We've also been presented as a case study for academic research for university students, with books written on the festival and lectures presented on the topic.

"You know an event has made it when it's presented as a case study in university text books."

Kelly said to see the festival how it was in 2002 to grow to beyond full capacity 30 years later, makes her proud.

But she said the amazing achievement would never have been reached without all parties involved.

"It just shows what can happen when a lot of people work together to achieve the same thing," Kelly said.

"And it's not just one thing, it has many elements that come together.

"It wouldn't be what it is without so much community involvement and involvement from community businesses and levels of government, all working in synergy.

"It's been an amazing thing for our town.

"Securing major corporate sponsorship and the grants is not an easy thing.

"It takes a concerted effort - you need to make a business plan, and substantiate and convince corporations why they should participate."

As expected, Kelly has too many favourite memories over the 20 years of the festival she's witnessed but seeing the fun visitors have in our town is up there with the best.

"Learning people's stories and hearing about people meeting their future partners at the festival too," she said.

"And the train, of course, is a highlight when it won its first NSW award."

As we countdown to the 30th anniversary of the Parkes Elvis Festival in January, we're celebrating the milestone by bringing our readers a special 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: