One for the Money, Two for the Show....

The Elvis Festival

WOW what a great festival. They say a picture says a thousand words, well I took over a thousand photos – here are just a few of them.

The 2018 Elvis Festival celebrated 50 Years since the '68 Comeback Special. The festival takes place the second week in February from the Wednesday to the Sunday. There were competitions, displays, a street parade, and heaps of free entertainment, especially in Cooke Park.

Starting north of town, at the Henry Parkes Centre, one can get local information and visit four museums: The Kings Castle houses a good collection of genuine Elvis artefacts; The Motor Museum has classic cars; Henry Parkes Museum tells the history of Sir Henry Parkes; and The Antique Machinery Museum. 

Heading into the CBD, on the left is Kelly Reserve. When we are on a road trip and drive through Parkes, we always stop at Coles and the French Bakery and then we stop at Kelly Reserve to make lunch. There are mini replica gates of Graceland and Elvis' Wall of Fame that we must have driven past at least 20 times, and never knew they were there. The wall has plaques dedicated to rock and roll singers through the decades. 2018 will be the Emmanual Brothers. Apparently the Emmanuel family lived in Parkes and the brothers, Tommy and Phil, went to Parkes High School.

 

The local Library is one street back from the the main street, Clarinda Street. We went there on the Wednesday morning to see the JFK Photographic Exhibition, 'American Visionary: John F. Kennedy's Life and Times', which is only being displayed in 12 countries around the world, and Parkes is only the second venue in Australia.

Also in the Library, we saw a video on '25 Years of the Parkes Elvis Festival'. The festival had its beginnings over dinner in the Gracelands Hotel – across the road from the van park. The library also played Elvis movies free throughout the festival.

Walking down the main street, some of the shops have an Elvis display in their windows. An interesting shop is Colouby, with items from the 50's and 60's, as well as clothes to purchase to dress up for the festival. It was definitely a fun shop.

Parkes also has a Public Art Trail at present consisting of 6 art works, all situated along, or nearby Clarinda Street. 'The King' art work is in Court Street and visible from Clarinda Street.

Fun while walking around the festival was looking at the large number of people dressed in costume – clothes of the 50's and 60's, and Elvis and Priscilla wigs, even children and dogs were in costume. There are plenty of cafes, clubs, pubs and eateries, both in Parkes and in Cooke Park. We had a few things in the park, that were ok, and had lunch in one of the clubs which was good, but the best food was at Paragon Cafe on Clarinda Street.

Clubs and venue places had paid and free entertainment. Even the Parkes Radio Telescope held a Elvis Tribute Artist Dinner. There was so much entertainment that it was hard to choose, and the good thing was that most of the entertainment was walking distance from the CBD. The main street had buskers of all ages from the Tuesday to the Sunday. There was Elvis Trivia and Elvis Bingo.

The Elvis Tribute Artists were, on the whole, good. We saw many of them free in Cooke Park. Jack Gatto (ETA winner 2016), Sean Luke Spiteri, Ben Thompson (UK), and Marcus Jackson were the best we saw. We were lucky to see Jack Gatto as his shows were mostly paid shows. We saw his free show at the Cooke Park stage. One fun event was the renewing of vows on Sunday. Ben Thompson sang two songs at this renewal ceremony. He was very good.

Some of the shows, we thought, were expensive ($66) and many were booked out months ago. As well as the ETA, we saw tribute artists for The Blues Brothers, Roy Orbison, The Beatnix, Tom Jones. A girl group 'Amitie' were great and sang all the songs that I grew up with.

We had some very hot days – Friday was a hot 39 degrees C (102 F) but on Saturday for the parade it was grey and rainy and a top of 19C (66F). That didn't stop many from watching the parade. The local morse code group even handed out free raincoats. The parade went for an hour and most ETA were included as well as local and far away groups.

Parkes has for a long time had a statue of Henry Parkes in the main street. This year a statue of Elvis was officially unveiled 12 January, but it was actually unveiled for media on Elvis' birthday 8^th January – and that was when we saw it.

Buses do a circuit every hour. At Spicers, there were two buses running on different circuits, which meant people could get a bus every half hour. Fares were $4 per ride, or $16 for the whole Festival – Wednesday to Sunday. Information about what was on was easily available in most places, from a lovely 84 glossy page book ($8) to a fold and take any where free pamphlet – and everything in between.

Everyone should experience it even just once, although I'm sure most will want to come again and again. One 'Can't Help Falling in Love' with this festival. We have booked for next year.

First road trip of 2018!

Our first road trip for the year started early January. We feel we didn't get away as much as we wanted last year, with a family wedding and other commitments. Last year we only managed 122 days away, compared with 198 in 2016. I wonder how many days we will be away this year?

As soon as we were able to get away we did. Our plan was to head to Parkes and the Parkes Elvis Festival, then head up to the Tamworth Country Music Festival. This will be our first Elvis Festival, and we are a bit excited.

Leaving home we headed through the Lockyer Valley to Heifer Creek. We have stayed here often, and know there is no phone or internet reception. We have to use the satellite TV, so we pulled up at Ma Ma to get the Vast TV System activated for this trip. We just happened to pull up in front of the Ma Ma Cemetery. Well, what is one to do, but have a walk around. I spoke with a local sexton who told me the church was built in 1912 and that a lot of the 'olden day' families still live in the area. It is thought the name Ma Ma came from European settlers. (The term Ma Ma or Mia Mia in Aboriginal is from Western Australia). The Post Office opened in 1884.

Driving a little further down the road we came to Heifer Creek camping. There were already a number of vans set up, some looked long term, but we settled into the same spot we always stay. Imagine our surprise to find the top drawer had fallen out again. The drawer latches on the Jayco vans are not as good as the older model we had.

My lovely teacup lost it's saucer, and a couple of small plates broke. Lucky we have Arcopal dishes. The camping is quiet and it is a great overnighter. The camp ground is located approximately half way between Gatton and Clifton. The road was built around the Second World War by the Theiss Brothers and there is a plaque at the camp ground.

Day 2, we decided to head to Texas via Inglewood. Last time we went via Stanthorpe, but we thought we would try a different way, because we can. Time wise it is the much the same, but the Stanthorpe way was more scenic. The first stop in Texas was the great butcher. Peter says this is the best butcher in Australia, and I must say that even I like the meat. This time we spent $37 and purchased enough meat for 4 meals for 2. Great meat. Many of the shops were closed for lunch, and after getting a few groceries we went to find a site beside the Dumaresq River. Again we ended up in the same site as last time. It was interesting to note that the river was a lot higher than it was last September. Being January, it was still very hot, luckily we were in the shade of the tree, and only staying one night.

You can read about the history of Texas here.

Day 3, we headed towards Moree and the Newell Highway. We had planned on staying the night at Bellata Golf Club, but as the temperature kept rising we came across a recreation ground at Gurley, not far north of Bellata, with power for $10 night. A great spot, quiet and away from the highway. We were the only ones there. There is a large firepit for winter, and toilets and showers. The caretakers were very helpful and told us about some local sites, that we don't have time to see this time, but we will another time. Gurley is located between Moree and Narribri and is very small and consists of the recreation ground, a pub, post office and a few houses. The railway, closed now, opened in 1897. The name Gurley came about in 1917.

Day 4, on the road again and again it is very hot. We planned another powered recreation ground the night at Eumungerie. $10 a night with power, and amenities. The live in caretaker was out to greet us as soon as we arrived, gave us a little advise about where to park, and went back to his van to watch cricket. We were thankful for the power to run the air-conditioner as the temperature got to 42 degrees, and it was a dry heat. This was the first place that we have run the air-conditioner all night, it was so hot.

Eumungerie has a school, a pub, a post office, the recreation ground and a few houses, much like Gurley. Settlers came to the area about 1872, and by 1874 a roadside inn was established, and the settlement grew. Originally named Coalbaggie after the inn. The railway came in 1901 and a timber mill opened soon after. The name was changed to Eumungerie in 1904, and is an Aboriginal word for Quandong, a native peach tree.

Day 5, and still heading south, we went the short distance to Parkes, where we are staying for a week for the Elvis Festival. We checked into the Spicer Park Caravan Park, and have an OK site – For $25 we are on the gravel, no power, no water, no amenities(cost more to use). I know it is expensive for 'nothing' but there is no where else near by to stay for the week, so here we are. The park is nice enough, a little to far to walk into town, it has a good camp kitchen. We would have liked power, but it was all booked out, being the Elvis Festival, most sites are booked out 12 months before. We went up to the info centre, which was small, however attached is the Henry Parkes Centre. We watched a short film about Henry Parkes. After collecting Elvis info we went for a short drive and then back to the van to start to plan our week. We were surprised to find an ETA (Elvis Tribute Artist) – Arthur, singing in the camp kitchen. He was pretty good too.

Parkes is in the centre of New South Wales and was explored by Europeans from 1813. Squatters came to the area from 1817 and it was not until 1848 that leases were taken out in the Parkes area. Parkes started as Currajong, named after the large number of kurrajong trees, in 1853. Gold was discovered in the Forbes area in 1861 and the following year, 1862 gold was discovered in the Currajong area and the town became known as Bushman's, after the local gold mine, Bushman's Lead. This brought many new settlers, and with the settlers came a post office and churches.

The first wheat crop in the area was grown in 1865 by Henry Harry Cooke and Joseph Harris. Henry Harry Cooke was a postmaster, storekeeper, farmer and became the first mayor of Parkes. Some descendants of the early settlers still live in the area.

In August 1873 Henry Parkes visited, and the name of the town was changed to Parkes. Parkes was officially proclaimed a town in 1885.