Once again, the Blue Suede Music Festival outdid itself.
Now in its sixth year, the Elvis Presley tribute event drew close to 4,000 people to the Busby Sports Grounds this year, surpassing the 3,200 people organizer Trudy Taphorn had estimated would show up.
“It has been absolutely unbelievable,” Taphorn said. “It’s just been nuts here. People are all so happy and everything went perfectly well.”
Part of the admission fee was donation to the food bank, either as a food item or money in lieu of food.
With Sunday’s collection still to be tabulated, Taphorn said the event had received nearly 2,000 kilograms of food and more than $2,000.
Busby firefighters were also in attendance and running several 50/50 draws throughout the weekend. They ran three on Saturday, all of which sold out, raising roughly $2,000 each towards the community’s new fire hall.
As the event has grown, so too has the distance audience members will travel to attend.
This year, there were people in the crowd from as far away as Vancouver and Toronto, as well as California and Washington State.
“It’s kind of becoming not just Canada-wide, but into the U.S. as well,” Taphorn said.
As the weekend progressed, she said she heard nothing but good things from everyone she bumped into.
“All I’ve heard all weekend is, ‘I can’t believe how well organized this is,’ and ‘Thank you so much!’” Taphorn said.
