International headliners recreate Elvis magic

Among the many amazing artists headlining show over the four day festival were international Elvis Tribute Artists Cote Deonath and Taylor Rodrigez.

Cote, who travelled to Parkes from Florida, has been playing tribute to Elvis Presley for the past 20 years and at 26 years old, is one of the top Elvis Tribute Artists in the world, being named the 2023 Ultimate Elvis Tribute Artist Champion by Elvis Presley Enterprises.

Taylor, who hails from Virginia, has graced the main stage in Parkes previously in 2022 as the feature artist, and has captivated many audiences over the years, being named the 2019 Ultimate Elvis Tribute Artist Champion by Elvis Presley Enterprises.

For Cote his dream was always to travel and perform internationally, so being invited to perform at Parkes allowed the stars to align, he said.

"It's a place that's almost unreachable for Americans," he said.

The Parkes Elvis Festival is really big back in the United States, Cote said, with a big and amazing reputation as being the biggest Elvis Festival.

"We kind of say it's like Tupelo [Elvis Festival] but on steroids," he joked.

"Because Tupelo Elvis Fest is the biggest Elvis Festival in the States when it comes to the city-wide vent being involved, but this is just tops," Cote said.

Taylor agreed, saying "It's our home away from home," despite the Central West's January heat.

A lot of this comes down to the attention to detail in everything Elvis, across the whole town, Taylor said.

"This festival, everywhere you go, everywhere you walk, everywhere you sleep or wherever, there is Elvis somewhere."

Having Elvis, from multiple eras, within multiple different parts of the town - in the concerts, the parade, the contestants, is amazing Taylor said.

He said to come back to something at the level of the Tupelo Elvis Festival and Canada's Collingwood Elvis Festival was just extraordinary.

Taylor said he was a bit shocked at the size of the festival during his first visit, but now he is used to the size, he found it easier to navigate things and be able to do the shows.

"[I'm] still not used to the heat, but the fans are just amazing," Taylor said.

"They're pure Elvis fans and I think that's what we really love here."

When asked what their strong suit is when performing, Taylor said both he and Cote won their performances by doing Elvis in the 70's, but they also love to pay tribute to the 50's and 60's as well.

"I think all of our concerts we really want to give the fans as much Elvis as possible in a variety of different forms.".

For anyone that wants to become an Elvis tribute artist, Taylor said to study Elvis as much as possible, watch as many videos and listen to as many records, songs as you can and try to replicate what he did.

Cote agreed with that and added to not watch other Elvis tribute artists and how they perform as they are mimicking Elvis and taking inspiration from him.

Cote said you should watch Elvis tribute artists for the small things such as how to interact with fans, how to market yourself and how to do media.

"Anybody who wants to this has greatness inside of them because it takes a lot of greatness to do this and put yourself out there because there is only one Elvis," he said.