Transcript: INTERVIEW WITH ABC NSW, JANUARY 8 2025
Subjects: Parkes Elvis Festival 2025
E&OE
STARTS: 5:22pm
ENDS: 5:27pm
REPORTER:
Just as the Elvis Festival kicks off today, Nationals MP Michael McCormack always looks forward to the festival. He joins us now—Michael McCormack, g’day! Are you wearing an Elvis wig as we speak?
MICHAEL McCORMACK:
Not as we speak, but I'll tell you what—the powder-blue sequined jumpsuit has been washed, and it's all spruced up and ready to be put on tomorrow when the Elvis Express arrives in town. I'll be there to greet them, getting off the train and looking very much forward to it.
REPORTER:
Will you be there in the jumpsuit?
MICHAEL McCORMACK:
I will, absolutely—with the blue suede shoes.
REPORTER:
I was talking to someone about the marketing of this, and I said to him that small towns, not just around Australia but around the world, are looking at Parkes thinking, Gosh, why didn’t we think of that?
MICHAEL McCORMACK:
Well, it is the result of Bob and Anne Steele, who owned Hotel Gracelands, and they just decided to have a little dinner. They put a little ad in a little paper just to sort of gauge some interest, and hundreds of people responded. They went to the council and said there might be something in this. The next year, they had a bit of a street parade, and again, hundreds of people turned out. It's taken off.
It is now the 32nd year, with 25,000 Elvis aficionados descending upon Parkes this weekend over the five days. It's a great festival. It contributes $15 million to the local economy—it’s incredible.
REPORTER:
How is Parkes going? Even just the infrastructure to service that amount of people?
MICHAEL McCORMACK:
Oh, they are very used to it. The Mayor, Neil Westcott, and General Manager, Kent Boyd, along with the local council, have everybody on deck. They just manage it. The hotels manage it. They all look forward to it. I mean, it's Elvis Central all year round.
They've got an office near my electorate office. It’s Elvis Central, and pretty much, it’s a year-round thing—it’s not something that just happens over the five days of Elvis’s birthday each January. It’s something that they work on for 12 months. They are officially endorsed by the estate of Elvis Presley—Elvis Presley, of course, in Memphis.
They do it properly, they do it professionally, and that’s why so many people come and keep coming. They put it on their bucket list, and everybody should make the road to Elvis at some stage in their life because it’s worth seeing—it truly is.
REPORTER:
Tamworth is similar in that respect, in some ways, in that the whole town sort of relies on it. But I think the thing they both have in common is this organic growth that started with just Trundle and ABBA.
MICHAEL McCORMACK:
Those things start small, but they just take off and have a life of their own. Elvis just has to be seen to be believed. I mean, the street parade on Saturday morning—you won’t get a better street parade anywhere in Australia.
I said to Caroline Kennedy, the former U.S. ambassador, You should try and make it because we’ve got this great little Aussie singer called Elvis Presley—you might have heard of him. She looked at me as if to say, Aussie singer? What do you mean? But we claim him as our own—Parkes takes the claim for Elvis, and so they should.
It is the time of year when everybody’s happy. They’re not thinking about politics. They’re not thinking about anything global or the cost-of-living crisis. They just want an escape, and Parkes provides that.
It’s a great festival. It’s a happy time. The council does an amazing job, and so does the Elvis Festival Committee. The volunteers all get dressed up—it’s a remarkable event.
REPORTER:
What do you think other towns could learn from Parkes’ experience?
MICHAEL McCORMACK:
Well, just how to run a really good festival. Cotton on to something that’s uniquely yours and just try your hardest, you know?
I know the Elvis Festival transforms every year. I mean, this year, it's Easy Come, Easy Go. They’ve used previous Elvis films in the past, but he had so many songs—I mean, he had hundreds upon hundreds of hits. So it’s not hard to come up with a new theme every year, but it’s always based on the same common formula—a successful formula with street parades, free concerts – they have a lot of free concerts, and people dressing up, even though it’s hot.
Make sure you’ve got all the logistics in place and go your hardest.
REPORTER:
Great to talk to you today, and all the best with the festival!