Viva Las Vegas. !!!

Last weekend  we  planned a road trip to Parkes, two reasons , firstly to catch up with our two daughters and all the grand kids and secondly to attend the  annual Elvis festival.
We arrived in Parkes on Friday in scorching temperatures with the thermometer hitting 45 degrees Celsius.
We had a lovely Chinese banquet dinner out all together and wandered the park where there was free entertainment and many market type  stalls.
This year marked the 25th  anniversary of the annual Elvis Festival in Parkes and  the theme this year was Viva Las Vegas.
On Saturday morning we took up our places in the street, picked a spot recommended by our daughter for a good view of the parade. We arrived an hour early to guarantee a good view for the grandchildren.
Then the parade got under way,

There were the usual  collection of Elvis look alikes, in every shape ,age and size,

And a few that really shouldn't have bothered,

My daughter ,who is a paramedic also took part in the parade,

She always enjoys being  in the parade and it was great to be finally able to attend this year and see her participate.
There were many beautiful old cars both  US left hand drives and Australian old  auto gems.

 

 

There were dancing girls,

and boys,

A gorgeous Marilyn Monroe, whose skirt performed beautifully on the day in the  light breeze,

and one of my favourites were these two   clever artists  strutting their stuff on stilts,

There was  a local dance  group,

Plus  some ponies from the local pony club,

and finally the  motorcycle escort concluded the parade,

It was a wonderful parade, lasting over an hour. These photos are just a tiny glimpse of  the parade.
I took well over 400 hundred photographs as each  group passed by.
After the parade was  over we wandered to the local library to wander around  the "Elvis " photograph display and also at that was this beautiful cake, decorated to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Parkes Elvis Festival.

The festival is spread over  a full week, and there are activities every day, many people stay locally for the week and  are entertained by the many concerts and  displays   that  are arranged.
A train  loaded  full of Elvis fans  arrives  from Sydney and combined  with the  masses of tourists the town  comes to life. It is a fun  week,  and I totally lost count in how many Baby Boomer Elvis and Pricilla's I saw wandering the streets , some looked amazing   !, and others.....need I say more.
We had a  wonderful time  at Parkes, and then brought our  eldest grand daughter  back to the farm for a few days. The weather has been atrocious , so hot and no rain, but we got through  it, by setting up a small paddle pool to cool off in and keeping the house dark and cool and  using our fans.
Take care everyone until we meet again,
Cheers,
Jane.