It's dusty, stinking hot, and buzzing with blowflies, but for just a few days rural NSW is taking a Hawaiian holiday.
Two months after savage floods devastated the central west, the Parkes Elvis Festival is bringing cheer, celebrating its 30th anniversary in the theme of Blue Hawaii.
A brass band dressed in floral shirts and leis led a shaking, rattling and rolling parade on Saturday morning, followed by roaring hot rods packed with Elvis and Priscilla lookalikes.
Swing dancers twirled down the main street, alongside Marilyn Monroe and Cher impersonators and cheerleaders throwing gold batons.
An Elvis dressed in electric blue and tottering on stilts loomed over the crowd, while a trio of Presley admirers spun in homemade hoop skirts decorated with hundreds of paper flowers.
Thousands of revellers who came from interstate and overseas got a glimpse of rural life when a tiny brown wallaby suddenly bounded up Clarinda Street, expertly dodging the cavalcade.
"Yes, there is a wallaby," a State Emergency Service volunteer's radio chirped.
Kelly Hendry, a Parkes local, gathered neighbourhood friends and their children to walk in the parade, along with Parkes East Public school's therapy dog, an excitable fawn labrador named Nixon
"We take the Christmas tree down, and Santa's out, then Elvis is in the building," Ms Hendry told AAP.
"2022 was a really difficult year and there's a lot of people still dealing with the grief and the trauma and the repairs.
"But if this can put a smile on some people's faces and they forget their troubles for a couple of days, that's a great thing."
Alex Gardner, from Jervis Bay, and Tony Schneider, from Brewarrina, met at the Tamworth Country Music Festival a decade ago, and make the trip to both festivals every January.
The friends clung to inflatable guitars and were kitted out in rhinestone suits, towering black wigs, and oversized golden glasses.
"Every performer here is unreal, they play Tom Jones, Buddy Holly, and - what's he called - John Lennon," Mr Gardner said.
For Mr Schneider, who found his outfit hanging at a Dubbo op-shop, the appeal is simple: "It's wine, women and songs, music is just one part of it."
The festival began as a quaint dinner and dance in 1993 in an effort to bring visitors to the town during the quiet heat of summer, and now attracts about 24,000 visitors.
Federal MP Michael McCormack, dressed in a tailored blue jumpsuit with gold beading, said the festival was one of the highlights of his year.
"Thirty years, how good is that? It's amazing to think the central west can have a festival to an American icon," Mr McCormack told AAP.
"Thank you. Thank you very much."
