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Niagara Falls 2008
Review

DAYS OF ELVIS/NIAGARA FALLS
SEPTEMBER 5.6 7, 2008
 
The Collingwood Elvis Festival  gang came riding into Niagara Falls like heroes on white horses to help out with the first ever "Days of Elvis Festival" in Niagara Falls.  It was a great showing of Elvis fans and ETA's helping each other out.

Organizer Pat Curtis put together a full three day slate of activities.  Unfortunately, Mother Nature had other ideas and most of Friday and part of the rest of the weekend got rained out, forcing a number of scheduling changes and changes of venue.

I was asked to join the judging team of six.  They used a very interesting concept.  For one song each ETA ( both pro and non pro) stood behind a curtain hidden away from the judges but visible to the audience. They were identified only by number.  A couple of verses of Elvis' actual recording was played then faded and then the ETA started the song again. That first song was judged solely on voice and then that score was sent off to be tallied in later for the performers final scores of the weekend.    I admit to having doubts how this would work, but it was a great success and seemed to add a bit of mystery and fun for both judge and performer alike.  The next two songs were judged by all categories...appearance, voice,movement etc.
This is something that may be considered by festivals in the future.
The highlight for me was seeing The Stamps and DJ Fontana in person and in performance. It was wonderful seeing the tribute artists performing with these legendary entertainers.  They looked like "kids in a candy store" .....It must have been intimidating, but they all did Elvis proud!!!!!

Anthony Von, Jay Zanier and Pete Paquette headlined the weekend shows and proved once again why they are champions over and over.
With the beautiful hotels, casinos and surroundings....Niagara Falls is a great destination for such an event with lots of potential.  Thanks for fellow Kings Courtiers Echo Parker and Doug Hobbs for showing up to show support.  I enjoyed being part of it!

Wendy King