Kristy Berry and her business gets heavily involved in Parkes Elvis Festival because she says it's important

Dial phone number, it rings. Kristy Berry answers.

As Kristy talks about the ways she gets involved in the festival and why she loves it so much, she and a friend are sewing seven Hawaiian dresses they designed and had printed for next year's event.

"The belts should be here in the next couple of days, they were made in the UK to match our outfits," she said.

This time of year, Kristy isn't thinking about Christmas like most small business owners are, she's thinking of Elvis.

Next year's festival, its 30^th anniversary, has a Blue Hawaii theme and these dresses are the uniform for Kristy and her team at Colouby Creations across the event's five days and will be on parade during the street parade on January 7.

Kristy did this last year too, made her impressive white Elvis jumpsuit style dresses and ordered the specially designed belts from the UK.

"It takes quite a few hours, maybe 30 hours in total, we have limited time in between work and everything else," she said.

Kristy first entered the Elvis Festival street parade with husband Colin in 2001. In 2010, the same year she opened her business, she saw an opportunity to open an Elvis shop in a vacant building across from Cooke Park in Clarinda Street to sell jumpsuits, women's outfits and Elvis products.

"I saw a market for it... They weren't selling these at Elvis Central at that point," she said.

"I would close my regular shop during the festival and only run an Elvis shop, I did that for the first three festivals."

Kristy has also had a vintage and 50s hair stylist operating out of her shop in the main street during the festival, bringing something a little different.

She's also still participating in the street parade, bringing with her a party of 12 these latest years, and she sponsors the Swing Katz dance troupe at the festival.

Kristy doesn't only do all this because she loves the rockabilly era and vintage style, she sees it as an important role to play as a business owner and Parkes resident.

"It's my way to give back to the community and we do it because the visitors love it," she said.

"We've had people come and see us every year for 12 years. I may only see them once a year and that's at Elvis but we've made lifelong friendships.

"People tell us 'you're the first shop we come into every year', that's what I love about it.

"You can't deny what it brings to the town."

Kristy invited stylist Vicky Shield from Snippets of Time Vintage styles in Brisbane to the Elvis Festival after meeting her at ChromeFest, a tribute to classic American autos and hot rods, rock 'n' roll and rockabilly.

For two years Vicky has styled festival goers hair with dos from Elvis' era and she's coming back for a third time next year.

"It's fun, it's good having her there. I saw an opportunity for that too," Kristy said.

"It brings something else to the festival and store, and it creates an atmosphere too.

"They may not get their hair done but people love watching it."

Parkes Elvis Festival director Tiffany Steel and her team are really encouraging Parkes people to get involved in the festival, especially for the 30^th anniversary next year.

They're calling on the town to 'holiday at home' this time of year and consider participating in one of the many areas of the festival, such as volunteering, home hosting, enter competitions, dress up and dress your shopfront, and take part in the street parade.

Kristy encourages and recommends it too.

"Embrace it, get involved and go the extra mile," she said.

"It's once a year, it might be a lot of hard work... I do think it's worth it, and it's just good fun.

"We've met people from all over the world.

"Our involvement in the parade has grown from three of us on push bikes to 12 people now and we've got a surprise coming in 2023.

"We've dressed thousands of Elvii in jumpsuits over the years and women in rock 'n' roll attire. We've seen some sights!" She laughed.

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: