Tupelo Elvis Festival Features New Events For 20th Anniversary Celebration

TUPELO, MISS. (WCBI) – Thousands of people are visiting Tupelo to celebrate that city’s most famous son.  The annual Elvis Presley Festival is underway, and this year marks the 20th anniversary for the event and there are several new attractions for Elvis fans of all ages.

The first full day of Tupelo’s Elvis Festival began with Christmas in June.

Elvis Tribute Artist Brandon Bennett played to a sold out crowd at the birthplace and museum.  It is one of several new events to mark the 20th anniversary of the festival honoring the original American Idol.

Hundreds braved the afternoon heat for a parade featuring all of the Elvis Tribute Artists in this year’s competition, along with special guests, including Victoria Paige Meyerink.  The actress, producer and speaker starred alongside Elvis in his 1968 movie, “Speedway.”

She enjoys sharing her memories as a 7 year old working with Elvis.

“He announced during the filming that Priscilla was expecting and I remember they assembled the whole crew together and he stood up on some apple boxes and announced it and how happy he was and he looked out in the crowd and pointed to me and said, and I want a little girl just like you, which of course hit the press within a week,” Meyerink said.

Another guest this year is Dick Grob, who was chief of security for Elvis the last ten years of his life.  He will be talking about his time keeping the superstar safe.

“Elvis really liked his fans, he would go out of his way to get close to his fans, talk to them, shake hands, give autographs, kiss women, kiss babies, usually women were all very good, problem is women have a thing called fingernails, and they’d reach out to try and touch him, scratch his face, scratch his hands that was usually the biggest problem you had,” Grob said.

Another new event is the free concert at Fairpark, actually Elvis Tribute Artists re created the 1956 tupelo show,  the 68 comeback special and the 1973 Aloha From Hawaiiworldwide concert.

Elvis Fest continues through Sunday.

For a complete listing of Elvis Fest events, go to tupeloelvisfestival.com

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