Collingwood Elvis Festival/2008

It went a little like this...Elvis songs galore, Elvis impersonators galore, and family fun at it's finest.

Mary, Faye, and I drove up to Collingwood on Friday (we took a few wrong turns but so what) and found a parking spot not far from the action. We'd decided to set up our lawn chairs downtown before we checked into our hotel and this way were able to get pretty close to the stage which was at one end of the main street. All traffic was blocked off so that Elvis fans could fill the sidewalks and road to watch the best darned free Elvis impersonator show in the world. It started at 1 P.M. and went on till about 10 or 11 P.M. The weather was perfect, warm and breezy.

We left our chairs only long enough to find a bathroom or food. The whole atmosphere of the Collingwood Elvis Festival is one of safe and friendly family fun and you run into Elvis impersonators everywhere. Some are entertainers and some just like to dress up. I've never seen anyone there that is sloppy drunk or obscene in any way although you do see a lot of characters. One of the cutest was a little boy about 3 years old dressed as Elvis and carrying a toy microphone. He put on quite a show just by walking around and posing for photo hounds.

On Saturday afternoon we had tickets ($34) for one the shows and spent about 3 hours listening to excellent Elvis tunes. We choose to buy tickets to a few shows but you could easily spend the whole weekend there and get more than your fill of free entertainment.

We've gotten familiar with a few of the Elvis entertainers although I still mix most of them up...they tend to look a lot alike. One of our favorites is a New Brunswicker named Mike Bravener and he and his band put on a free show on Saturday night for the fans. Elvis is the reason for the festival but these singers are very versatile in their singing ability. Mike sang rock, blues, and Elvis for us.

We headed back to our hotel (Blue Mountain Resort) around 9 P.M. only to discover a free Elvis show was being held in the center courtyard of the resort. Our balcony overlooked the courtyard, which is huge and which was absolutely filled with Elvis fans, so we had a perfect spot to sit out, drinks in hand, and listen to the show which ended around 11 P.M.

We lazed around most of Sunday morning but finally headed off to the Elvis gospel competition at 1 P.M. The tickets cost $17 each and entitled us to about 3 hours of incredible talent. It absolutely amazes you to hear the strength and quality of voice coming out of these fabulous entertainers.

The final competition ($52) on Sunday night started at 5 P.M. and lasted until approximately 10:30 P.M. There are many categories of singers, ranging from some as young as 10 years old and up. One of the winners was a 14 year old boy from Hamilton named Anthony Capalone who just filled us with awe. He was far and away one of the best singers I've ever heard and he more than deserved his award.

With few exceptions, the talent we saw on that stage was A1 and those entertainers could practice their craft anywhere, whether it be impersonating Elvis or just on their own. They were so good I got a little worried they might abandon the Elvis Festival in coming years and go off to earn millions in Las Vegas.

There was a post-festival-party open to everyone when the competition was over but we decided we were just too tuckered out to attend. I've never been to one before but was told they can go on till the wee hours of the morning. Instead we took our tired bodies back to our room, got into jammies, and poured ourselves some drinks.

Monday morning came all too soon and it was time to pack up and move out. We all agreed that we loved our room, the hotel, the town, the festival, and we'll return in 2009. Whoever created this festival (this was #14) and built it into the amazing event it is today deserves our praise and our thanks.

Getting back home proved to be a bit of a chore because, despite having 2 reliable navigators in the car (I'm not one of them), we took a ton of wrong turns which lost us a few hours travelling time. The nice thing is that it was through gorgeous countryside and we had no stringent time table anyway. Being a senior means that you do have the time to stop and smell the roses!

I'm glad to be home but I'm ever so glad I had the opportunity to be enveloped by "Elvis" for 3 days. I wouldn't have missed it for the world.