The Parkes Elvis Revival Festival: Economic Development and Contested Place Identities in Rural Australia

71

Geographical Research

•

March 2007

•

45(1):71–84

doi: 10.1111/j.1745-5871.2007.00429.x

Blackwell Publishing Asia

Original Acticle

Geographical Studies • March 2007 • 45(1): 000–000

The Parkes Elvis Revival Festival: Economic Development and Contested Place Identities in Rural Australia

CHRIS BRENNAN-HORLEY

1

, JOHN CONNELL

2

and CHRIS GIBSON

1

*

1

Human Geography, School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Wollongong, NSW 2522, Australia.

2

School of Geosciences, University of Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia. *Corresponding author. Email: [email protected]

Received 5 December 2005; Revised 5 May 2006; Accepted 19 November 2006

Abstract

This paper discusses the annual Elvis Revival Festival in the small town ofParkes, 350 km to the west of Sydney, in rural Australia. It explores the wayin which a remote place with few economic prospects has created a tourismproduct, and subsequently captured national publicity, through a festival basedaround commemoration of the birthday of Elvis Presley, a performer who hadnever visited Australia, and certainly not Parkes. The Festival began in the early1990s, when a keen Elvis fan rallied promoters (and other fans) around the ideaof bringing Elvis impersonators to the town for an annual celebration. Sincethen, the Festival has grown in size, with notable economic impact. The townnow partly trades on its association with Elvis, constituting an ‘invented’ tradi-tion and place identity. Yet the festival is not without tensions. The images ofElvis and the traditions generated by the festival challenge those who wish topromote Parkes through more austere, staid notions of place and identity. Forsome, Elvis is a means for the town to generate income and national notoriety,while others prefer less ‘kitsch’ tourism attractions such as a nearby (and nationallyfamous) radio telescope. Results from interviews with key players and surveysof visitors demonstrate how ‘tradition’ is constructed in places (rather than beinginnate), and how small places, even in remote areas, can develop economicactivities through festivals, and create new identities – albeit contested ones.

KEY WORDS

festivals; Elvis Presley; Parkes; tourism; economic development;place identity; rural and regional Australia

Introduction

Economic decline in rural Australia has becomean issue of national importance (Rogers andCollins, 2001; Cocklin and Alston, 2003). Muchevidence supports the argument that ‘the infra-structure and community life of many ruraland remote towns has been slowly pared away’(Sidoti, 2000, viii) through bank branch clo-sures, restricted access to telecommunicationscompetition and infrastructure, and decliningpopulations in some areas (Argent and Rolley,

2000; Gibson, 2003). Restructuring of tradi-tional agricultural industries has also created‘winners’ and ‘losers’. Certain regions, such asparts of Far North Queensland and Victoria,with better soils, more space, and high capital-intensive forms of production, have improvedtheir economies of scale, gained export marketsand retained or even boosted their populations.In other regions where farms and exports aresmaller, and where capital is scarce, local eco-nomies have stagnated. Patterns of growth and

72


•

March 2007

•

45(1):71–84

© 2007 The AuthorsJournal compilation © 2007 Institute of Australian Geographers

decline and resultant social problems have notbeen distributed evenly between, or within, regions.While some centres continue to grow, manysmaller towns have become caught in a viciouscycle of decline, losing residents, industries andconfidence about prospects for a sustainablefuture. Successive years of drought in much ofrural Australia have only exacerbated this sense ofuncertainty about economic and social prospects.

Against this backdrop of uneven fortunes,numerous places in inland Australia have soughtto reinvent themselves through staging festivals.A recent estimate noted over 600 music festivalsin rural Australia (Gibson and Connell, 2005).Many more rural festivals have focused on foodand wine, literature, film, multiculturalism,gardens and sporting competitions. Small, strug-gling towns in rural Australia have promotedfestivals of all sorts, both as a community-building exercise and because they can attractwealthy, usually urban, visitors. In Australia, asin many other parts of the world (Xie, 2003), thetourism spin offs deriving from the promotion offestivals are seen as one means of redressingrural decline (Walmsley, 2003). For example, in2003 an annual international music festival wasargued to be the only viable means of rescuingthe host Shoalhaven River Estate from bank-ruptcy and mounting debts (

Sydney MorningHerald

, 26 April 2003, 5). Later that year thetiny former gold mining township of Hill End,with just 120 people, launched the inauguralHill End Jazz Festival, which was expected tobring 1500 visitors and raise enough money tobuy a defibrillator for the community (

SydneyMorning Herald

, 24 October 2003, 3). In thesmall town of Queenscliff, Victoria, tourismincome from its modest annual music festivaltotalled over A$2 million. For the festival’smanager, Barbara Moss,

That economic impact is tied to the socialfabric of the community. It’s directly linkedto the social health of the town and confidenceis always a big factor in economic growth. Alot of local people become involved in thefestival – up to 400 people volunteer to helpout each year – and we’ve found that to be abig long-term stimulant to the economy.Some of those people might otherwise belying in bed watching Oprah. Now they’reout getting involved. That connectivity, thebringing together of diverse elements, is whatsocial wealth is all about (quoted in Gibsonand Connell, 2005, 223).

Festivals thus also contribute to notions of com-munity, while the income generated enablescommunity goals to be met. Some Australiancountry towns, such as Tamworth (New SouthWales) and Port Fairy (Victoria), have been sosuccessful that their festivals have substantiallyimproved economic and social capital, and thesuccess has resulted in those places largelybeing known through their festivals (Gibsonand Davidson, 2004). In this manner, festivalsbecome a long-term, place-marketing strategyas much as a short-term event (Hall, 1989). Inselected cases, festivals have become integralelements of local and regional economic revital-isation strategies. Festivals are anticipated tobring multiple benefits to rural communities:to stimulate short-term employment; to improvethe skills and capacity of residents to find futurework; to enhance social cohesion; and to re-invent places and their images. In short they canplace or keep towns on the map.

This paper discusses one such festival, in asmall town suffering from the symptoms ofdecline discussed above. It highlights how aremote place with few economic prospects hascreated a tourism resource, and subsequentlycaptured national publicity, through a festivalbased around commemoration of the birthday ofElvis Presley, a performer who had never visitedAustralia, and certainly not Parkes, nor had anyother links to the town. Indeed, Elvis rarely leftAmerica. This case study demonstrates how‘tradition’ can be constructed in places (ratherthan being innate), how small places, even inremote areas, can develop economic activitiesthrough festivals, and create new identities –albeit contested ones. This paper communicatesresults of fieldwork conducted at two Elvis Revivalfestivals in 2003 and 2004. This fieldworkincluded surveys of businesses and visitors (seebelow for further explanation) and interviewswith local tourism promoters, business peopleand local government representatives.

Parkes, New South Wales: Australia’s Elvis-town

Parkes is a small country town of 10 000 resi-dents 350 kilometres from Sydney (Figure 1).Like many other inland country towns, it has lostpopulation (4% between 1996 and 2001), hashigher than average unemployment rates, andlow levels of participation in the labour force(43% of the total population), and its populationhas become dominated by those of retirementage (ABS, 2001). It is essentially a service

C. Brennan-Horley, J. Connell and C. Gibson:

The Parkes Elvis Revival Festival

73


Figure 1 Location map, Parkes, New South Wales, Australia.

74


•

March 2007

•

45(1):71–84


centre for a rural agricultural region locatedin Australia’s wheat-sheep belt. It has beenplagued by drought in recent years. Farmershave sought to diversify into other crops such ascanola, but the precarious nature of wheatexports still troubles the town. Other than itshistoric radio telescope (‘The Dish’), a vital linkin the 1969 Apollo moon landing (which became,in 2000, the subject of a popular Australianfeature film of the same name), Parkes has littlein the way of visitor attractions. It was once a majortransport hub; however ongoing rationalisationof the New South Wales (NSW) rail network(which could mean further job losses for thetown) reduced visitor through-traffic.

The emergence of the Elvis Presley RevivalFestival in Parkes was entirely the result of achance local whim, when business owners devotedto the memory of Elvis, proposed the idea tocouncil members, as recalled by committeemember, Neville ‘Elvis’ Lennox:

It was Bob and Anne Steel up at Gracelandsrestaurant. They’re big Elvis fans and theyown the restaurant. They were just having abit of a talk to the right people at the righttime, at one of their functions. They werecouncillors and they said, ‘Well there’s noth-ing going on, nothing celebrated that time ofyear. Elvis’s birthday’s the eighth. Comealong to the next council meeting, we’ll putit to the board.’ It just evolved from there.(Personal communication, 2004)

Parkes happened to have a restaurant calledGracelands, and a small group of committedfans willing to organise an event. This suited thepragmatic aim of the local council of the time,namely to improve summer tourism. ParkesShire tourism manager Kelly Atkinson noted:

The tourism board and council together recog-nised that January was a very quiet time ofyear. They were trying to introduce moreevents onto the calendar having identifiedtourism as a key market to target. In con-sultation with local businesses such as Grace-lands they came up with the idea to have abirthday party for Elvis. It started as an idea totry and turn that low season around and inventa festival that would curb that. (Personalcommunication, 2004)

An Elvis Revival committee was subsequentlyformed and, in 1992, what was essentially avery small group of local fans decided to stageAustralia’s first Elvis festival. The first Festival

was held in January 1993 (Figure 2), coincidingwith Elvis’ birthday. It attracted 500 peoplefrom as far as Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney,and set the theme for those that followed, withElvis and Priscilla (Elvis Presley’s wife) look-alike competitions, a street parade with vintagecars, shop window displays of memorabilia,Elvis movies at the cinema (since closed), andconcerts, one of which was at the GracelandsClub. Indeed the previous existence of a Grace-lands Club had been one factor convincingorganisers that Parkes was the appropriate placefor the festival.

The first festivals were largely ignored by thelocal media as inappropriate or trivial (despitethe dearth of news in midsummer), and thatexclusion has only partly diminished. By con-trast, the national media have regularly coveredthe Festival, invariably because of its curiosityvalue, and as a result of claims by the organisingcommittee that it was keen for Parkes to become

Figure 2 The inaugural Elvis Revival Festival, Parkes,1993 (Source: The Parkes Champion Post, 1993, 50).



75


the ‘Elvis capital’ of Australia. For Bob Steel,then chair of the organising committee, the lead-up to the first festival hinted at such nationalpublicity:

We have been overwhelmed with the atten-tion this festival is receiving. For example,even the

Melbourne Truth

ran an article onthe festival, suggesting that we could becomethe Elvis capital of Australia. Newspapers,television and radio stations have all beengiving the festival plenty of coverage and ifnothing else, it has certainly given Parkespublicity ... (quoted in the

Parkes ChampionPost

, 8 January 1993, 5).

Ironically this kind of national coverage, and itscelebration of tackiness and kitsch, has probablydrawn most visitors (as typified by one picturein the prominent

Sydney Morning Herald

; seeFigure 3).

The festival begins on the Friday night of theweekend closest to Elvis’ birthday (8 January1935), usually with dinner and various formsof Elvis entertainment at Gracelands (with allparticipants encouraged to dress in appropriateannual themes: cowboy, speedway, Hawaiiana –

usually linked to Elvis movies). Saturday seesthe street parade of vintage cars and motorbikes(and vintage Elvis impersonators), with marketstalls (ranging from memorabilia – rarely ‘real’– to country handicrafts) in the main park area.The park is the venue for the main sound andlook-alike competitions – Elvis, Priscilla, Lisa-Maree (Elvis’ daughter) and Junior Elvis – andthe day concludes with a feature performance bya touring ‘professional’ Elvis impersonator. Thehighlights of the Sunday are the highly-attendedGospel Church Service and the unveiling of anew plaque on the Elvis Wall (at the park) tocommemorate another ‘legend’ of Australianrock ‘n’ roll music (often the previous night’stop-billing performer). The wall itself surroundsgates that are a replica of the gates of Presley’sGraceland mansion in Memphis. A talent con-test with more diverse themes brings the festivalto an end as most visitors return over considerabledistances. A special train (the Elvis Express)runs from Sydney (Figure 4), with the supportof NSW Railways and the state tourism promo-tional authority. Over a third of the festival-goersusually come from Sydney with some beingfrom further afield.

Figure 3 Parkes, according to the Sydney Morning Herald (January 2003, 8).

76


•

March 2007

•

45(1):71–84


On some occasions Elvis movies have beenshown and the local lawn bowling club hasurged visitors to ‘kick off your blue suedeshoes’ and have a game. An Elvis celebrant canbe made available for couples to marry or renewmarriage vows during the weekend, a handful ofbuskers occupy street corners, and the PrivateCollection of memorabilia of Elvis Lennox –with a pink Cadillac parked in the driveway – isopen to all visitors. The emergence of Parkes asAustralia’s Elvis capital played a pivotal role ininfluencing Neville to take on the icon’s name:

I prefer Elvis to Neville, me original firstname. After the first two years of competitionhere in the look-alikes – I won that in 93, 94– and walking up the street or down thestreet, whichever the case is and you hearpeople yell out across the street at ya ‘g’dayElvis’ and that. And I said, ‘ya know, thatwould be an idea’. So I put it to me mother,asked her permission to do so and she said‘you go ahead and do with it what you want.’And I said, ‘thankyou very much’. Paid 75dollars and had it legally changed. (Personalcommunication, 2004)

An avid collector, Neville has amassed a formid-able amount of Elvis paraphernalia, some of

which comes from a personal trip to the realGraceland in Memphis in 1997, the same yearas his name change:

I spent four and a half thousand dollars whenwe were there and had to send half ahead ofmyself to get back home here. I went overwith two suitcases and came home with nine… had to buy an extra set of luggage while Iwas there. I bought books, pens, watches,bottles of Coca Cola that had Elvis’s twentiethanniversary on them. Whatever I could get.(Personal communication, 2004)

The Festival is strongly supported by the localrugby club and during the entire period of theFestival the town, and especially the venues, isseemingly awash with Elvis impersonators(Figure 5) which for many creates a colour andatmosphere that is the highlight of the Festival.

In its second year, the festival brought visitorsfrom further afield, including Western Australiaand Queensland, and added a clambake at Grace-lands, with sand and surfboards brought in totransform the car park. The Parkes TourismPromotions Officer heralded it a success, andconceded that it had become an integral part ofthe annual events calendar:

The event will provide substantial tourismvalue for Parkes, in terms of publicity and incold, hard revenue. The revival could wellbecome a role model for other interest groupskeen to promote their festival. A hard core ofElvis stalwarts researched and marketed theconcept and banded together to form aneffective working team. (

Parkes ChampionPost

, 5 January 1994, 1)

Although interest grew steadily, the organisationof early festivals was a struggle. It is typical forfestivals in small places to lack leadership andappropriate skills and this hampered professionalevent management, as explained by formerParkes Tourism manager, Kelly Atkinson:

It started off small and started to grow. Theword started to get out there and the mediacoverage started to get out there about thefestival but I guess the lack of resources andlack of skills among the committee and justa few different things, and lack of supportfrom the community saw numbers start todwindle and the festival nearly fell over acouple of years ago. That’s when the tourismboard got back on board again. (Personalcommunication, 2004)

Figure 4 The CountryLink Elvis Express (Source: StateRail, promotional material 2005).



77


Kelly also noted how the recent upswing invisitor numbers had influenced other localgroups to bring tourist events to Parkes:

They’ve seen what can happen with Elvis.The Country music festival is really lookingto expand and to develop using the Elvis fes-tival as a catalyst. The country music festivalhas to realise that we’re never going to beanother Tamworth but Elvis can be. Its gotthat uniqueness and no one else is doing it.(Personal communication, 2004)

Over the years the two-day Festival has con-tinued to attract growing crowds, with 2500 atthe street parade, and one or two hundred atmost of the commercial events, with more than500 estimated to have come from outside thetown. In 2006, organisers estimated that over5000 people participated in the festival. Mediacoverage went international in 2002:

That particular year (2002) we had Buck-wheat noodles, which is a local company that

exports its noodles directly to Japan. We hada Japanese TV program come and do filmingat the festival, set up a noodle tent down inthe park, feeding the Elvises noodles through-out the festival and interviewing them, andgiven Japan’s affiliation with Elvis and lovefor Elvis and crazy things … The next year2003 we really hammed it up as far as tryingto add more to the program throughout theweekend and also just hamming up the wholemedia effort. Just trying to get more publicity.(Kelly Atkinson, personal communication,2004)

The Parkes Tourism Office continues to capit-alise on national and sometimes internationalmedia exposure, with journalists from the majorAustralian news networks returning to thefestival each year. The Festival is supportedfinancially by the Parkes Shire Council throughits Music Development Project, but it is run largelyvoluntarily by a committee of locals, tourismpromoters and Elvis fans, with all profits going

Figure 5 Elvis impersonators, Parkes, 2003 (photograph by Chris Gibson, 2003).

78


•

March 2007

•

45(1):71–84


to local charities. In recent years, further financialsupport has come from the New South WalesState government and major sponsors.

Visitors – who, where from, and why

The tourist numbers are not insignificant giventhe size of the town, the fact that most stayedfor a couple of nights, usually in hotels andmotels, and the relatively small tourist market– especially in mid-summer when it can beextremely hot – for inland Australia. As partof this research, visitors to the Elvis RevivalFestival were surveyed in two consecutive years,2003 (125 respondents) and 2004 (120 respond-ents), providing data on their demography,expenditure patterns, transport arrangements,accommodation type, motivations to visit andexperiences while in Parkes.

Surveys were distributed to accommodationfacilities in Parkes, and via the Parkes regionalvisitors centre, located in the main festival park-lands. Surveys were available for visitors to pickup and complete, rather than being distributedformally to a sample of a target population(hence it is not possible to calculate the extentto which results are statistically representative).Indeed, it is possible that the surveys were com-pleted by more ‘committed’ and ‘out-of town’than ‘casual’ or ‘local’ visitors.

Unlike other forms of tourism, festivalsattract very specific audiences, depending on thenature of the event. In this case, that specificityis even narrower given the focus of the festivalon tribute artists and impersonators of one(dead) performer, rather than on a whole genreor a range of live performing acts.

The age of visitors to the festival is somewhatolder than that at other rock music festivals. It isdominated by people from the 45–65 year oldcohort, who made up over 60% of all visitors in2003 and 2004. This was to be expected, reflect-ing the considerable popularity of Elvis withpeople who experienced their youth when Elviswas alive and active as a performer. Represent-atives from younger age groups were fewer innumber, but were still present, reflecting theincreasing popularity of the event as a ‘kitsch’or ‘retro’ event for urban tourists keen to parti-cipate for the fun and humour, rather than fornostalgia or reminiscence.

Festival visitors came from a range of occu-pational backgrounds (Figure 6). The largest groupwere professionals, a group well known for theirpropensity to travel and for their high levels ofattendance at festivals (Gibson and Connell,

2005), followed by tradespersons, retirees, andmanagers and administrators. Most (80%) hadnot attended an Elvis Revival Festival before,but in both years respondents enthusiasticallysaid that they were likely to return to the festi-val. Of those who had attended previously, mosthad visited in several consecutive years – ameasure of the presence of ‘devotees’ at the fes-tival, for whom the Elvis festival is much morethan mere entertainment. Word-of-mouth andnewspaper advertisements appeared to be themost common ways that visitors found outabout the festival, with a modest rise in visits tothe festival website in 2004, perhaps a reflectionof increases in the numbers of younger peopleattending. There were virtually no internationalvisitors to the festival. Most instead arrivedeither from other parts of the central west regionin which Parkes is located, from Sydney, thenearest major metropolitan area, and from inter-state – the latter being visitors drawn inresponse to national media coverage each year,or because of their own close involvement inAustralian Elvis fan clubs. Almost all came bycar. This pattern appeared to remain the sameacross the two survey years despite increasingnational and even international media coverage.

Most people attending the festival simply statedthat they visited for the fun and relaxation. Whenprompted on their experiences, well over 90%

Figure 6 Occupations of festival visitors, Parkes ElvisRevival Festival, 2004 (Source: Authors’ survey).



79


enjoyed the entertainment, country hospitalityand music. Very few (only two respondents) werenegative about the festival. Some qualitativeresponses hinted at the presence of ‘postmodern’tourists (or post-tourists), visiting Parkes forthe humorous and kitsch (‘everything wassensational, baby! uhh huh huh!’; ‘eating atGracelands – wow – I’ve been to Gracelands!’).For particularly committed fans of Elvis, thereis essentially no other means of expressing suchdevotion, without lengthy and expensive travelto America. Indeed at the very first festival,

One elderly lady from Cowra contacted us tothank the committee for doing something shesaid is long overdue. She is in a wheelchair... she is a dedicated Elvis fan and tells us shehas a poster above her bed which is one ofonly 10 in the world (quoted in the

ParkesChampion Post

, 1993, 5).

For a 2003 survey respondent:

I wanted to come for years but my Dad,whose birthday was the same day as Elvis’s,was ill for a number of years, so I did notcome. But my dad has passed on and is upwith Elvis in heaven singing along. This ismy first year and it’s been fabulous. (Surveyresults, 2003)

Such testimonies indicate the manner in whichfestivals – even the most seemingly esoteric orincidental – transcend daily life and bring arange of meanings to individual lives. For ahandful of fans the visit to Parkes is akin topilgrimage (

cf

. King, 1994), albeit a pale reflec-tion of the trip to Graceland in Memphis.

Economic impacts of the 2004 Elvis Revival Festival

The economic impact of the festival has beenconsiderable, and visitor surveys in 2004 indi-cated the extent of the direct economic effectson Parkes. In 2004, visitors spent an average ofA$440 per person over the festival weekend,translating to an injection of over A$1.1 millioninto the local economy. Accommodation (aver-aging A$142 per person), food and drink (A$134)and entertainment (A$51) were the most commonforms of expenditure, with smaller amounts spenton souvenirs (A$43) and other services such asfuel (A$28). For a town of its size, such injec-tions are not insignificant, particularly takinginto account the further multipliers throughoutthe local economy resulting from this initialexpenditure.

During the 2004 festival, local businesseswere also surveyed on their attitudes towardsthe Elvis Revival Festival, and the social andeconomic impacts that it had on the town. Allbusinesses with shopfronts were approached toparticipate. Of the 62 respondents (representingabout 80% of those approached), most werevery small retail businesses, typical of countrytowns. Questions concerned the direct financialand employment impacts of the Festival on thetown, and respondents’ perceptions of Parkes,its tourism potential, and the suitability of thefestival as a marketing strategy for the region.

The majority of businesses responded thatthere was an increase in trade due to the ElvisFestival. Some 34% noted an up to 20% increasein trade, 21% noted a 20–50% increase, 6%noted a 50–100% increase and 5% noticed anincrease of 100% or more. Restaurants and cafeson average doubled their business (with theextra trade largely attributable to visitors), hotelsand motels – for one of the only times of theyear – illuminated ‘no vacancy’ signs, and otherretail businesses (bookshops, record stores,clothes shops, newsagents) reported substantialincreases on normal trading levels (Table 2).

A quarter of businesses put on extra staff overthe weekend, adding a total of 30 jobs to the town.Predictably, restaurants (43%), cafes (33%) andaccommodation facilities (14%) accounted forthe bulk of temporary positions created. Retailpositions filled the remaining 10%. In surveyresponses, these business types were also thosewith the highest dependency on local suppliersand labour. The festival improved employmentmultiplier impacts by generating extra work inthose activities that, in turn, are most closelyembedded in the local economy rather thanothers that rely on goods and services (such asbooks and clothes) imported from Australiancapital cities.

Contesting rural place identity: is kitsch kosher?

Until very recently, Parkes rarely mentioned theFestival in any of its standard tourist publica-tions, preferring to advertise itself as the townwith ‘The Dish’, and as a prominent regionalcommercial centre (Figure 7).

Amongst the local businesses that respondedto the 2004 survey, opinions about the appropri-ateness of the festival as a marker of place iden-tity, as opposed to other options such as ‘TheDish’, were divided. Only a small percentagedid not support the festival in an overall sense

80


•

March 2007

•

45(1):71–84


Figure 7 Cover of Parkes regional tourism promotion brochure (Source: Parkes tourist information centre 2003).



81


(5%) compared with the general support for it(62% strongly support; 25% mildly support),and more than 70% agreed that the festival con-tributed to the town by fostering a greater senseof community (Table 1). Over 80% of busi-nesses strongly agreed that the festival had apositive impact on publicising Parkes as a tour-ist destination, yet over 65% either mildly orstrongly favoured ‘The Dish’ as a source ofmore appropriate imagery. A further 15% didnot agree that ‘The Dish’ provided more appro-priate imagery and some 16% were not sure oftheir feelings on this question, indicating thatsentiments in favour of the festival are far fromuniversal in Parkes. Similarly, respondents werealso divided about whether Parkes ‘needed achange of image’: slightly more (43%) agreedwith this than did not (36%), but opinions werefairly evenly divided. Kelly Atkinson conveyedhow community perceptions were influenced byimages displayed by media and popular culture,as was the case following the cinema release of‘The Dish’:

Especially since 2000 when ‘The Dish’ wasreleased, people were a little hesitant aboutthe movie because in some respects it madeParkes look a little backward in coming for-ward. Once they came to understand that thatwasn’t the message that people were getting,and that the movie was doing positive thingsfor the town, I think especially that was aneducation process for tourism in the town.(Personal communication, 2004)

In the same way, seeing the growing success ofthe Elvis Revival Festival has helped to changelocal perceptions of the event and garner furthersupport and interest from local businesses andthe wider community:

2003 was the biggest festival in its 11-yearhistory and I guess the community havingseen the success of 2003 and having notreally had much to do with it decided in2004, it was time for them to get on board.We really saw lots of local businessesbecome involved. In 2003 they had givenmore sponsorship, but in 2004 we saw moreof their support by introducing new products,by actually becoming directly involved withthe festival, and I think that has really helpedto make 2004 the best that its been. (Personalcommunication, 2004)

The previous two quotes illustrate how commu-nity identities can not only be contested, butalso that they remain fluid, especially when theyare influenced by the economic benefits thattourism provides.

Though some locals and outsiders mightsee the Festival as a celebration of kitsch, mostvisitors did not. Their average age in 2003, ofalmost 50 years, and their comments – manywere disappointed with some aspects of localsupport and in favour of a much greater visiblepresence of Elvis memorabilia – indicate that asubstantial proportion were ‘true believers’ andover 20% were repeat visitors (Brennan-Horley

et al.

, 2003). Those who enjoyed it most were

Table 1 Qualitative responses to business survey, Parkes Elvis Revival Festival, 2004 (Source: Authors’ survey).

Strongly disagree

Mildly disagree

Not sure

Mildly agree

Strongly agree

The festival has a positive impact on my business 2 4 6 26 25(3%) (6%) (10%) (41%) (40%)

The festival has a positive impact on Parkes’ local economy

− 1 6 16 40(1%) (10%) (25%) (64%)

The festival has a positive impact on publicising Parkes as a tourist destination

− − 2 9 52(3%) (14%) (83%)

The film ‘The Dish’ provides more appropriate imagery to promote Parkes as a tourist destination

1 9 10 24 19(2%) (14%) (16%) (38%) (30%)

Parkes needs a change of image 9 14 11 17 11(15%) (23%) (17.5%) (27%) (17.5%)

The festival helps foster a sense of community in Parkes 1 4 9 29 18(2%) (6%) (15%) (47%) (30%)

I support the Elvis Revival Festival 2 1 5 15 39(3%) (2%) (8%) (25%) (62%)

82


•

March 2007

•

45(1):71–84


those who felt that locals from Parkes hadentered into the spirit of the event, especiallythrough the Elvis impersonators: ‘the town’s afriendly place’; ‘the whole atmosphere was abuzzwith Elvis memorabilia’. By contrast, those whoexpressed any disappointment commented onthe need for more local involvement, and longerstore opening times (into Saturday afternoon,for example) – though, since most visitors comefrom larger towns, their expectations of localservices cannot always be met. While most resi-dents, including business owners welcomed andsupported the event, some simply ignored orturned their back on it. One service station wentto the length of voicing their opposition byprominently displaying ‘Elvis is dead’ on abillboard outside their store. However, publicdisplays of hostility towards the event were rare.

In an effort to combine the success of Parkes’two major attractions, the Tourism Office has

attempted to marry the two somewhat opposingfigures of Elvis Presley and the Parkes RadioTelescope (Figure 8), and in doing so reconcilecompeting (if not contradictory) images ofplace:

I think in the last couple of years Elvis reallyhad nothing to do with the telescope. But weare really trying to tie those together becausethey have started to become the two bestthings that Parkes is known for by a generalaudience. This year for the first time wedeveloped a new image that was used formerchandise that had Elvis singing with thetelescope in his hand as a microphone. We’rejust trying to tie those two together. And somaking the Elvis unique to Parkes. He’s notjust any Elvis that could be found anywhere– he’s the Parkes Elvis. (Kelly Atkinson,personal communication, 2004)

Parkes has ultimately sought to provide Elviswith a connection to place.

Conclusion

The Parkes Elvis Revival Festival demonstrateshow a small place can stage a festival in a relatively

Table 2 Average turnover change during the Festivalweekend, 2004 (Source: Authors’ survey).

Business type Average turnover change (%)

tourist information increased 100% or moreregistered club increased 50–100%retail books increased 50–100%café increased 20–50%caravan park increased 20–50%motel increased 20–50%restaurant increased 20–50%retail toys increased 20–50%hotel increased 0–20%newsagency increased 0–20%pharmacy increased 0–20%retail craft increased 0–20%retail gifts increased 0–20%retail music increased 0–20%retail optical increased 0–20%retail photography increased 0–20%retail unspecified increased 0–20%garden centre stayed the samehair salon stayed the samereal estate stayed the sameretail clothing stayed the sameretail electrical stayed the sameretail fruit and veg stayed the sameretail jewellery stayed the sameretail shoes stayed the sameretail sport stayed the sameretail video stayed the sameretail fabric decreasedGrand average increased 0–20%

Figure 8 The Parkes Elvis (Source: http://www.parkes.nsw.gov.au).

http://www



83


remote location, and succeed in generatingsubstantial economic benefits, in fostering asense of community, and in gaining nationwidenotoriety and/or publicity. It has done so withoutany legitimate local claim to musical heritage,cultural diversity or a remarkably attractivesetting. Most other festivals linked to individualmusical performers try to generate a link to thatperformer – whether birthplace, death-place, orplace of famous recordings. This is not so inParkes. Although it has now become knownthroughout Australia as a location associatedwith Elvis, Parkes has wholly invented thisassociation. Indeed, the festival represents aboutas narrow a rationale for an event as can beimagined – the legendary performer is longdead, and festival visitors arrive to see mereimpersonations of the original. Where tourism isconcerned, myth and tradition are not alwayslinked to authenticity and credibility.

In a sense Parkes has become the site of an‘invented tradition’, where a particular image hasbeen grafted on to a place, linked to a particularimagined historic past, but assumed to havebeen ever present (Hobsbawm, 1983). However,unlike ‘traditions’ now widely if incorrectlyaccepted as innate (such as tartan kilts in Scot-land), it is quite clear to all that there is no Elvistradition in Parkes. The town has succeeded inspite of itself and created a celebration of kitschand fantasy that is nonetheless as ‘real’ as anycelebration of Elvis in Australia might ever be.Its many supporters derive a variety of sensoryexperiences and pleasures from the Festival and,in so doing, the town has gradually deployed aform of ‘strategic inauthenticity’ (Taylor, 1997)that has placed the town on the tourist map, thuscreating a form of ‘invented geography’.

Indeed Parkes is now so well known for Elvisin Australia that the festival organiser MoniqueKronk is consulted in the national news mediaon all Elvis-related matters. In April 2006, fol-lowing the announcement of an Americancrackdown on unauthorised Elvis impersonators,the


(SMH) sought aresponse from the organising committee onwhat effect this may have on the Parkes festival(SMH 24 April 2006, 11). Parkes’ identity is nolonger just as a sheep or wheat town, nor is itthe ‘crossroads of a nation’. It is

the

place to beconsulted about all things Elvis.

Parkes thus mirrors somewhat similar, thoughlarger, tourist destinations in the United States,notably Roswell (New Mexico) and Metropolis(Illinois), the former having become the ‘UFO

capital of the world’ where aliens are supposedto have crash-landed and where a UFO museumhas been constructed, and the latter where anannual four-day Superman Celebration takesplace. At Roswell there has been considerableantipathy to the UFO link as something unworthyof local heritage and place identity (Paradis,2002), and at Metropolis what was initially apublicity stunt by a lone resident has becomethe town’s most important economic event(Netburn, 2005). In particular circumstancestowns have been able to gain significant eco-nomic and social benefits by developing andtrading on unlikely, improbable, even whollyfictitious and sometimes ‘unworthy’ events andassociations.

Parkes has also succeeded despite the scepti-cism and downright opposition of some of thetownsfolk, concerned about the image and statusof the town. Some prefer the link to an Australianicon – ‘The Dish’ – as the appropriate imagefor a town named after the founder of AustralianFederation, while others object to what theysee as a tawdry celebration of popular culture(‘Hungover and drunk Elvises in the parade onSaturday morning isn’t exactly a great imagefor the town’). Nonetheless enough are wellaware of the economic benefits and most storeson the main street have increasingly decoratedtheir windows and entered into the Festivalspirit. Even a divided community has benefitedsubstantially.

Both locals and tourists have questioned thelongevity and sustainability of the Elvis RevivalFestival – is it a gimmick with a use-by date, aone-joke wonder? So far, it has grown year byyear and appears to attract a significant numberof repeat visitors, mainly older Elvis fans whoare not there for the kitsch value. In 2004 it wasofficially supported for the first time by TheNew South Wales State government, under theRegional Flagship Events Programme, withthe Minister for Tourism observing

What the Parkes Elvis Revival Festival doesfor regional New South Wales is act as a flag-ship by attracting more tourists. The Festivalis always the highlight of the New Year incentral New South Wales. (Quoted in

ParkesChampion Post

, 17 January 2005, 3)

Although tourist expenditure on food, accom-modation and other goods has helped to offsetthe impacts of drought and rural decline, it hasprompted some competition from other regionaltowns as they seek to develop comparable festivals

84


•

March 2007

•

45(1):71–84


and sources of income. Nearby Forbes nowhosts its annual jazz festival in a bid to acquirepart of the festival market. In 2001 the smallSouth Australian seaside town of Victor Harbourlaunched the Festival of the King, this timemarking the date of Presley’s death; for the firsttime, Parkes had a form of direct competitionfor the ‘Elvis market’, though it proved to beshort-lived. Both Burra (South Australia) andMaitland (NSW) have also recently staged Elvisfestivals.

Parkes has succeeded so well from the Festivalthat, in 2006, it effectively reached the limits oflocal accommodation. Inevitable uncertaintiesabout the future of the Festival discourage anyexpansion of accommodation capacity but, moreimportantly, the present accommodation is onlyever completely full during this event. Parkeshas subsequently sought to stimulate other festi-val activities at other times. Alongside the ElvisPresley Revival Festival, Parkes also organisesa Country Music Spectacular, the AustralianMarbles Championships, a Motorcycle Rally anda Kennel Club Show. The task of translatingshort-term festival success into long term tourismis a challenging one. The recent announcementby billionaire US media entrepreneur RobertSillerman, the new owner of Elvis Presley Enter-prises, that Elvis impersonators would have toabide by more stringent licensing regulations,will potentially add a new kind of challenge forthe Parkes festival (SMH, 24 April 2006, 11),Yet at least in the short term this unusual festivalhas become a major source of local revenue andpublicity for a declining town.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTSWe would like to thank Kelly Atkinson and Monique Kronkfor their support and assistance, as well as the two anonym

-

ous referees who kindly provided helpful comments on thefinal draft. The research was supported by an AustralianResearch Council Discovery Grant (DP0560032) and wewish to acknowledge the ongoing roles of Gorden Waitt, JimWalmsley, Andrew Gorman-Murray and Anna Stewart inthat project.

REFERENCESArgent, N. and Rolley, F., 2000: Financial exclusion in rural

and remote New South Wales, Australia: a geography ofbank branch rationalisation 1981–1998,

Australian Geo-graphical Studies

38, 182–203.ABS (Australian Bureau of Statistics), 2001:

Census ofPopulation and Housing

. ABS, Canberra.Brennan-Horley, C., Gibson, C. and Connell, J., 2003:

Parkes Elvis Revival Festival; The Visitor Survey 2003.University of New South Wales, Sydney.

Cocklin, C. and Alston, M. (eds) 2003:

Community Sustain-ability in Rural Australia: A Question of Capital?

Centrefor Rural Social Research, Wagga Wagga.

Gibson, C., 2003: The digital divide in New South Wales: aresearch note on socio spatial inequality using 2001census data on computer and internet technology.

TheAustralian Geographer

34, 239–257.Gibson, C. and Connell, J., 2005:

Music and Tourism: on theRoad Again

. Channel View, Clevedon.Gibson, C. and Davidson, D., 2004: Tamworth, Australia’s

‘country music capital’: place marketing, rural narratives,and resident reactions,

Journal of Rural Studies

20, 387–404.

Hall, C.M., 1989: The definition and analysis of hallmarktourist events,

GeoJournal

19, 263–268.Hobsbawm, E., 1983: Introduction: inventing traditions. In

Hobsbawm, E. and Ranger, T., (eds)

The Invention ofTradition

. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1–14.King, C., 1994: His truth goes marching on: Elvis Presley

and the pilgrimage to Graceland. In Reader, I. andWalker, T. (eds)

Pilgrimage in Popular Culture

. Macmillan,London, 92–104.

Netburn, D., 2005: Look! Down on the ground.

SydneyMorning Herald (Good Weekend)

(17 September), 57–60.Paradis, T., 2002: The political economy of theme develop-

ment in small urban places: the case of Roswell.

TourismGeographies

4, 22–43.Rogers, M.F. and Collins, Y.M.J. (eds) 2001:

The Future ofAustralia’s Country Towns

. Centre for SustainableRegional Communities, Bendigo.

Sidoti, C., 2000: Foreword. In Pritchard, B. and McManus,P. (eds)

Land of Discontent: The Dynamics of Change inRural and Regional Australia

. University of New SouthWales Press, Sydney, vii–viii.

SMH (Sydney Morning Herald), 2006: Crackdown on ElvisImpersonators,


(19 April), 4.Taylor, T., 1997:

Global Pop: World Music, World Markets

.Routledge, London.

Walmsley, D.J., 2003: Rural tourism: a case of lifestyle-ledopportunities.

Australian Geographer

34, 61–72.Xie, P.F., 2003: Visitors’ perceptions of authenticity at a

rural heritage festival: a case study.

Event Management

8,151–160.

Documents

The Parkes Elvis Revival Festival: Economic Development and Contested Place Identities in Rural Australia