You might expect the world’s biggest Elvis Presley festival to be in Las Vegas or Memphis, Tennessee. But a small seaside town in south Wales, Porthcawl — where each year 40,000 people descend to celebrate the legacy of the King — claims this title.
The main event is a three-day Elvis competition, which pits the best Elvis Tribute Artists (known as ETAs by those in the know) in the world against each other, all vying to be named Porthcawl’s top Elvis for the year. Contestants have to showcase their voices, dance moves, outfits, and stage presence, all of which are assessed by a panel of judges who crown the winner.
While Elvis artists still tend to be men, there were two women in the competition this year. One of them, Janny James, explained that she had worked hard to get her high voice deep enough to sound like Presley’s. “It took two years of sore throat nodules, but I got it low enough,” James told NPR.
Dressed in a white jumpsuit covered in red rhinestones, Janny was competing in heat two. Contestants fly in from around the world. A married American couple were supposed to come over, and also compete against each other, but got stuck at home thanks to Hurricane Helene.
The other woman in the contest, Paula Navarro, had travelled from Portugal. Navorro is a therapist-by-day, but says she works hard on her Elvis tributes. “Once you wear a jumpsuit, you need to do things seriously,” Navarro said. “I'm not a professional, but I'm always demanding in everything I do.”
Porthcawl was once a thriving seaside resort. But the closure of the nearby coal mines and the rise of cheap flights to sunnier parts of Europe have meant lower tourist numbers in recent years.
Organizer Peter Phillips started the Elvis festival exactly 20 years ago to raise money to save the local theater, called the Grand Pavilion. But now the event has grown beyond his wildest dreams, taking over the town for a weekend every year.
“I always say that more Elvis fans celebrate Elvis at the end of September in Porthcawl than celebrate Elvis in Memphis on the anniversary of his death,” Phillips told NPR. Phillips — who has been an Elvis fan since his school days, when fellow students preferred Led Zepplin — says that he believes that tribute acts are part of the reason that Presley remains such an iconic act today, almost 50 years after his death.
Beyond the main competition, all of Porthcawl goes Elvis Presley mad. Every pub books Elvis impersonators, and revelers dress up in costumes. There’s a Young Elvis competition, and a ‘Hound Dog’ prize for the best dressed mutt. Minister and Elvis tribute artist Reverend Wynne Roberts performed as Elvis at a church service — in Welsh, of course.
The Porthcawl Elvis festival is known for spotting the best of the best Elvis tribute acts before the rest of the world. The current champion Emilio Santoro, a 21-year-old from England, became the best Elvis in the world when he won the Ultimate Memphis Championship in August. He thinks he's only the fourth ever British winner of the prize. Santoro first came to the Porthcawl festival aged 13, and won the first year he entered, aged 16. He says Elvis has been an obsession since he was very young old, inspired by his mother, a massive Elvis fan.
"I remember seeing him on the TV. And then that next Christmas, I was writing to Santa asking for a jumpsuit," Santoro said. "It's a full circle moment coming back here."
As well as having fun, there’s a serious side to being an ETA. Many of the Elvis performers make their living playing in care homes to older people, who often have dementia. “You start singing, and then all of a sudden, people are trying to pull themselves out of chairs,” said local Welshman Darren ‘Graceland’ Jones, who won the competition in 2014. “They want to get up and dance, but they can't even walk… it's Elvis that does that.”
There’s also a family element to the Elvis tribute acts at Porthcawl. Last year’s winner at the Porthcawl festival was “TC Memphis,” real name Trevor Chaplin-Smith, a Brit who has a day job as a mental health nurse. This year, his future son-in-law Nick Pitt was competing, and came in second overall. The pair share advice on how to improve their acts. This year, the winner was “Blue Angel”, an entertainer from Malaga in Spain.
“He's my idol, my favorite artist… hearing Elvis Presley songs always helped me through my life,” he told NPR. After receiving his trophy, Blue Angel did one last Elvis classic for the cheering crowds, looking the part in his pink Elvis jacket.
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