I never was a fan. Elvis started his career before I was old enough to care about his music and by the time I was, other types of music and groups had my attention and admiration.
However, here in New Zealand, and especially in our retirement community, we have found that Elvis is much loved. His songs make up a percentage of every singalong that Jeanne attends. And if there is a party some evening, and someone decides to get up and sing a song for the rest of us, chances are about even that it will be a song that Elvis made famous.
Recently, there was an Elvis festival in Cranwell Park. That's about a five minute walk from our village. It was a beautiful day and I took a few shots as I walked through the festival grounds.
Take a look. This is the memorial in Cranwell Park. Sometime ago, in a previous post, I showed you this memorial when someone had placed flowers on it. Now, that's fan devotion.
Here is the entrance. It's a very small gathering.
There was also a car show. Mostly left-hand drive models.
This is the very first 'Elvis' of the day. I think they had five of them scheduled. He had a rather unfortunate start. (I thought so anyway.)The announcer gave him a great intro. Started quiet and then, as he talked, he got louder and more excited, the music that was playing crescendoed, and the announcer shouted,
"Here he is, ladies and gentlemen, Elvis,"
and nothing happened. Where was Elvis? He finally made it to the stage after about a minute.
Fortunately, the crowd was very forgiving and he was greeted warmly, once he made it on-stage.
He didn't attempt to do Elvis's accent at all. The crowd was hungry for his songs and he got right to it.
I was wondering if the various impersonators got together before the show and agreed on what songs each would do, so there wouldn't be excessive overlap of some songs. I thought this because I noticed he wasn't doing any of the really big hits. However, I didn't stay very long at all and didn't hear his full performance.
The weather stayed perfect that day. I'm sure everyone attending, performing, showing cars, or in any way associated with the festival was pleased.
Henderson celebrated the "King," once again. -djf
I don't consider myself a rabid fan but I did always enjoy Elvis and his music. I did find the end time of his life very sad to watch as a teenager. I wish the Impersonators would focus on his music and not the caricature aspect of his brand. Regardless, I am happy that Henderson loves Elvis and enjoys him, Here in Las Vegas and Henderson, he is very much celebrated. We do listen to Elvis on Sirrus in the car and I love his Gospel music. Fred loves to dance to Elvis music with the grand girls on their Alexa when he babysits on Wednesday mornings. Obviously, Fred plays a great deal of other music with the girls but they seem to love Elvis. I loved seeing this post and it's so nice that the crowd was so kind to the "late" Elvis. McKenzie
ReplyDeleteI'm glad that you enjoyed the post McKenzie. You would have enjoyed the festival.
DeleteI do like Elvis but I find impersonators cringe worthy so I probably would not have attended the festival. I may have liked the food and Fred would like the car show so we would have liked that. McKenzie
ReplyDelete