AILSA CHANG, HOST:
You might expect the world's biggest Elvis Presley festival to be in Las Vegas or Memphis. But in fact, it's across the ocean in a small town in Wales. Reporter Robbie Griffiths went there and got all shook up.
ROBBIE GRIFFITHS, BYLINE: Porthcawl in South Wales might seem a strange place to celebrate Elvis Presley.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "JAILHOUSE ROCK")
ELVIS PRESLEY: (Singing) The warden threw a party in the county jail.
GRIFFITHS: But once a year, 40,000 people descend on the seaside town for an event that calls itself the world's biggest Elvis festival.
JANNY JAMES: It took two years of sore throat, nodules. But I got it low enough that it sounds better. You know, it goes with the suit and everything.
GRIFFITHS: Janny James has worked hard to get her high voice low enough to sound like Presley's. While Elvis tribute acts still tend to be men, she's one of two women competing in Porthcawl this year.
JAMES: (Singing) You ain't nothing but a hound dog, crying all the time. You ain't nothing but a hound dog, crying all the time. Well, you ain't never caught a rabbit. You ain't no friend of mine. You ain't no friend of mine.
Thank you very much (laughter).
GRIFFITHS: Dressed in a white jumpsuit covered in red rhinestones, Janny is competing in heat two against her fiance Steve. Contestants fly in from around the world. A married American couple were supposed to come over and compete against each other but got stuck at home thanks to Hurricane Helene.
LENNY DEE: They come from everywhere to be here.
GRIFFITHS: Porthcawl was once a thriving seaside resort, but then the coal mines nearby closed, and it slipped into gentle obscurity.
(APPLAUSE)
GRIFFITHS: Organizer Peter Philips started the Elvis festival exactly 20 years ago. Originally, it was meant to raise money to save the local theater, the Grand Pavilion. But now the event has grown beyond his wildest dreams, taking over the town for a weekend every year.
PETER PHILIPS: 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.
GRIFFITHS: Philips thinks Elvis tribute acts, or ETAs - don't call them impersonators - help keep the memory of Elvis alive.
EMILIO SANTORO: (Singing) Let's rock. Everybody, let's rock.
GRIFFITHS: This is the current king of Kings, Emilio Santoro, a 21-year-old from England. He won the ultimate Memphis championship in August but started at the Porthcawl festival aged 13. Santoro says one of his secrets is Presley's lisp.
SANTORO: (Singing) Lord almighty, I feel my temperature rising higher, higher. It's burning through to my soul. Yeah.
There we go. There's a little bit of, like, a - he pronounces the Ss. He pronounces the Ss very well, but it comes across as a sh.
GRIFFITHS: As well as the main competition, the whole of Porthcawl goes Elvis-mad. Every pub books tribute acts, and revelers dress up. There's a young Elvis competition and a hound dog prize for best-dressed mutt.
(SOUNDBITE OF DOGS BARKING)
GRIFFITHS: In a local church, minister and Elvis tribute artist Reverend Wynne Jones performs Elvis at a service in Welsh, of course.
WYNNE JONES: (Singing in Welsh).
GRIFFITHS: 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. Local Welshman Darren "Graceland" Jones, who won the competition in 2014, says there's something special about the job.
DARREN JONES: You start singing, and then all of a sudden, people are trying to pull themselves out their chairs. You know, they want to get up and dance, but they can't even walk - sort of thing. And it's Elvis that does that.
GRIFFITHS: This year the winner was Blue Angel from Malaga in Spain.
BLUE ANGEL: He's my idol, my favorite artist. Hearing Elvis Presley songs always helped me through my life.
GRIFFITHS: And with that, in his pink Elvis jacket, he was off to his next gig, clutching his trophy and singing.
BLUE ANGEL: (Singing) I'm a fool, but I'll love you, dear, until the day I die.
GRIFFITHS: Robbie Griffiths, NPR News, Porthcawl in South Wales.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "FOOL SUCH AS I")
PRESLEY: (Singing) There's a fool such as I am. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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