They may not have realised it at the time but the Parkes rugby union players who took it upon themselves to dress as Elvis when the Parkes Elvis Festival was in its infancy, had started a movement.
And even to this day, the NSW Central West guys are still a little lost for words when told of the real impact they've had.
When the festival started in 1993, no one dressed up as Elvis - only those who were competing in look-a-like competitions or performing, and even then most would change into and out of their outfits just prior and after the show.
Pulling on a star-studded jumpsuit and wearing it for the duration of the festival came as a bit of fun for the rugby boys, who were all young, single men at the time.
Initially it started as part of their social club activities, the gentlemen's club they called it, which formed in 1995. Their first festival was 1996.
"The rugby union boys were instrumental in engendering the spirit and fun of the festival," festival founder Roel ten Cate said.
"They were the life of the festival, things never kicked-off until they came along," fellow founder Anne Steel added.
"People would be waiting for them, and their numbers got bigger, they kept coming back with more and more each year," Anne said.
They became an enormous novelty, mini celebrities as Wayne Osborne, one of those players, once described it.
"We saw an opportunity the festival could be so much more than it was," Wayne said
"It was an opportunity to inject more fun into it - we saw people sit back and watch, and not participate," teammate Richard Rice added.
Wayne met up with some of his rugby mates originally involved in the festival - such as Richard, Scott Morrissey, Chris Summerhayes and Craig Rusten - to reflect on those early years and some very unique memories.
Scott even brought along with him, safe-kept wrapped in tissue paper in a box and all, their gentlemen's club's minutes book he dug out of the archives.
Their movement began with eight of them - Wayne said it was only ever eight because that's the most jumpsuits they could hire from the east coast of NSW.
It became an annual road trip to Sydney where the men raided every dress-up shop from Broadway west to Parkes back in the pre-online days to ensure they were all decked out for the festival.
"We could only get so many suits... When one of us called it a night and left the festivities early, we told them you have to leave your suit here," Wayne laughed.
"He'd have to walk home in his underwear and then there'd be three or four blokes fighting over who would wear the jumpsuit next, 'me, I'm next!'
"This day and age you just go and order online - some of us eventually went to a local dressmaker and had suits custom-made."
Richard said you had to get there early when the boys would met up ahead of the festival to get the best suits.
"It was free for all," Chris added. "One year one of the boys had a suit that was too small, he wasn't happy about it!"
"We went from eight to 10 to 12 people as suits became more available and we got our own," Wayne said.
"When the American dollar crumbled, we all went nuts!" Chris laughed.
As you can imagine the men were met with some rather odd reactions at first in those early years, even disapproval from hard-core fans who thought they were poking fun at their idol.
"It was never about mocking, it was about joining in and bringing some fun," Wayne said.
"It was very obvious the town didn't support it (the festival).
"You'd walk down the main street and it was business as usual, people didn't know a festival was on.
"We carried a boombox with us with Elvis songs on a cassette because when we walked into a pub down the street, we asked them to put on some Elvis music, they said they didn't have any.
"So we'd bring our own - we'd walk in and there'd just be people sitting around, watching the TAB and the publican would ask 'what are you's doing?' And we'd say it's the Elvis Festival.
"That's indicative of how the Elvis Festival was on a Saturday."
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But then came the fanfare.
"We'd make a fashionably late entrance and everyone was like 'they're here! They're here!" Wayne laughed.
"It was huge at Gracelands!
"I couldn't tell you how many photos we've had."
The rugby boys were in high demand as the years passed, receiving calls from people to attend 'their' dinner.
They became that popular they even received a request to attend a competing Elvis festival at Morpeth, near Maitland around the year 2000, a time when the Parkes festival was struggling.
"Lucky we didn't," Richard said.
As part of their social club's informal initiation, players were to take part in a competition because not many people did. They also always participated in the street parade.
Richard had won the Elvis look-a-like competition one year, in either 1996 or 1997.
"It's a lot more complicated now, we only had two competitions then," Wayne said.
"And the current Elvis rugby boys are so much looser, they have no rules. We had no where else to go back then, we just had two locations."
And in 2015 an additional activity on the rugby boys' schedule was born, an unofficial event but it's become a Friday night staple of Elvis week in Parkes and has had visitors contacting the Parkes Champion Post office asking if it's on and what time in previous years... Elvis rugby.
It began with player Anthony McIntyre who got his hands on a whole lot of cheap Elvis jumpsuits made in Cambodia.
It involves the rugby players and anyone else who likes to join in for a friendly game of rugby union. One requirement, you have to don the famous Elvis jumpsuit and there's no guarantee you'll still be wearing it in its entirety by the end.
It's not for the faint-hearted - you will swivel, you will roll and you could find yourself at the bottom of a big Elvii ruck. There's never a winner, only ever a draw but it is recorded on the 'Memphis Mug', which happens to get lost among them after that night - one year they lost it for six or seven months with it showing up at one of the pubs.
The men, now with wives and families of their own, still dress-up and partake in the festival in what has become an annual tradition for them.
They have even cut family holidays short to come home for the festival because, as Richard said, "we know the fun we'd have and we're committed".
"This comes with the package, for better or for worse - this might be for worse," Chris laughed.
"Most wives have a laugh, shake their heads at us and say 'see you Monday'," Wayne added.
Some still have their original suits and they still meet up on the Friday night at their 'Elvis central', a mate's home in Dalton Street.
"That was the first Elvis central," Chris said.
Former tourism and destination development manager Kelly Hendry had summed up the tale of the Parkes rugby boys, the festival and its townspeople quite fittingly when she said "Parkes doesn't take itself too seriously, however we do take what we do seriously".
Now, 30 years on, you're almost out of place if you're not dressed up.
The Parkes Elvis Festival starts on January 4, 2023.
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Christine Little
I love sharing people's stories, particularly local stories that are special and important to the people of Parkes. If there is one thing I have learnt in my 10 years of community journalism, it's that stories are everywhere. All it takes is a good story teller to make it worth reading. Email: christine.little@parkeschampionpost.com.au
I love sharing people's stories, particularly local stories that are special and important to the people of Parkes. If there is one thing I have learnt in my 10 years of community journalism, it's that stories are everywhere. All it takes is a good story teller to make it worth reading. Email: christine.little@parkeschampionpost.com.au
