Busby’s sports grounds were rocking to the beat over the weekend as the Blue Suede Elvis tribute music festival took over the area.
Now in its fourth year, the festival has set up shop in Busby because organizer Trudy Taphorn realized she needed more space to accommodate the ever-burgeoning crowds.
And despite the cloudy, chilly and windy weather that blanketed Busby on Saturday, the desired big crowds were out in full force.
“We have about 150 RVs here, and it looks to be about 1,200, maybe 1,300 people,” she said.
The crowd came from all over Alberta, as well as provinces like Saskatchewan, Manitoba and British Columbia, as well as several U.S. states.
But no matter where they came from, they were all there for one reason and one reason only — to celebrate their love of The King by enjoying some of the best Elvis tribute artists around.
In all, 18 men and one boy took to the stage to belt out some of Elvis’ best-known hits, some of his lesser-known pieces, and even a few Elvis-inspired renditions of songs The King never performed.
One such tribute artist was Washougal, Wash.’s own Mark Stevens, who has been part of the Elvis tribute world in one way or another for about five years.
“I’ve sung my whole life, in school and in choirs,” he said. “I was doing karaoke one night at a bar and did Don’t be Cruel. There was a theatre group there that night and they came up to me and asked if I wanted to do an Elvis role in a play they were doing.”
He did that, and it proved to be the gateway into a new world. He started to dress up a bit more in the Elvis style — clothes and hair included — and people started flocking to him, asking if he could sing at various events.
All that attention led Stevens to start doing Elvis impersonations as a moonlight gig, but as the time investment grew he was able to turn it into a fulltime gig about a year ago.
That decision has led him to travel all over to compete and just perform at festivals like the Blue Suede.
“The experience is amazing,” he said. “There’s the feeling of love shared by people who love Elvis. It’s wonderful to have lots of people around to share it with. We’re all fans here and we come and share that love and make new friends.”
While the majority of tribute artists were grown men who likely remember seeing Elvis perform on TV or in person, there was one young boy who only knew about Elvis from the music and stories his family told.
Six-year-old Brayden (Elvis) Black, out of Edmonton, was by far the youngest performer who took to the stage, and attracted a lot of attention from the crowd.
Black has been performing for close to three years, ever since he sang at a birthday party, said his great-grandmother Jean Dahlgren.
“He listened to the radio and picked it up when he was only two-and-a-half,” she said. “We’ve got him into picnics and parties, mostly within the family.”
For Black’s part, he enjoys performing so much he doesn’t get nervous, even when faced with a crowd numbering more than 1,000. But of course, it’s not just the music he likes about Elvis.
“I like the suits,” he said. “My favourite is the gold one. I also like his voice, how he can hit the high notes and hold them.”
Having 19 performers and a crowd in excess of 1,200 people is a dream come true for Taphorn.
“I never had a goal for the number of people I wanted to attract,” she said. “The only goal was to find a space that could hold as many people as I thought would come out. It really is something. I never thought I’d see this many people.”
She’s found that in Busby, which opened up its doors and sports grounds to host the event and make sure it went off without a hitch.
“I’m glad I didn’t try to stuff all these people in my yard anymore,” she said.
In addition to giving Elvis fans a chance to relive their idol’s glory days, Taphorn also used the event as a chance to collect donations for local food banks, something that proved to be a smashing success.
“We had collected more than 3,000 pounds of food by 1:30 on Saturday,” she said.
