Elvis has officially left the building, as organizers of the Blue Suede Festival have announced the annual charity event will move to the Busby Sports Grounds.
The festival, scheduled for Aug. 25-26, settled on Busby after turning down the Tawatinaw Ski Hill and Highridge Rodeo Grounds in the County of Barrhead.
“We wanted to keep it here, in the open with really no rules and no regulations. We knew there would be a lot of rules if we moved into town,” said organizer Trudy Taphorn.
For the last three years, the festival has been hosted at their 11-acre farm. It was last year’s attendance that indicated a larger facility would be needed.
Crowds of over 530 people, with 32 RVs and hundreds of cars, gathered at the farm last summer.
“The first time we had it, I just had three of my tribute artists and friends come. I thought it was going to be a handful of people coming out to enjoy one evening and over a hundred people showed up to that,” she said.
With all the proceeds from the festival donated to food banks around the region, including Westlock, Barrhead, St. Albert and Athabasca, the event has grown into a great charitable resource for surrounding communities.
In 2011 Taphorn was able to collect approximately 1,600 pounds of non-perishable food items, plus donated a $250 cheque to each of the food banks.
The charitable aspect of the event is also a tribute to the king of rock and roll as Taphorn tries to honour his giving nature with the donations of the proceeds.
“Elvis was big in charity. He gave so much of his money and cars and houses. You name it, he gave it away,” she said.
With the new facility allowing for added features such as three beer gardens, a bigger memorabilia tent, more silent auctions and autograph sessions, Elvis fanatics can expect this year to be even bigger and better than ever before.
As there are several festivals commemorating Elvis’ death in August, Taphorn hopes to lure fans by changing her dates a week later from the larger Memphis event.
“We need something like this for the Elvis fans here in Alberta. We need that next generation to know about his music too,” said Taphorn.
Tickets are $5 for entry plus a food bank item donation at the door. Guests bringing their RV are required to register in advance for $20 as spaces have already begun filling up since October.
