Matteo Chiari had only been in town for a few hours, attending his first-ever Parkes Elvis Festival, when he decided it wouldn't be his last.
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The 28-year-old hails from Edinburgh, Scotland and travelled the 16,865 kilometres to Sydney, then the 358 kilometres to Parkes, especially to attend the festival.
Parkes man Jordan Grosvenor managed to convince his Scottish friend to attend.
"He sold it to me," Matteo said.
The pair worked together at the Sydney Convention Centre when Matteo was last in Australia in 2017.
Matteo knew he was attending an Elvis festival and had an idea of what it involved.
He arrived in Parkes on Friday, just in time for the Elvis rugby union match.
"I expected the town would become electric, there would be classic cars everywhere, bars rocking with music and entertainment in the streets," he said on Friday at Pioneer Oval during the footy match.
"I heard it was the second biggest Elvis festival in the world but I couldn't believe it until I saw it.
"This (the rugby match) has been brilliant.
"It's my first festival but not my last."
Matteo also took part in the street parade on Saturday morning and he was very much looking forward to it the night before.
Although it's the middle of winter in Scotland right now, Matteo said he acclimatised quickly to Australia's and Parkes' scorching heat.
"It's very easy to acclimatise [when your friends drag you] here from Sydney in a non-air-conditioned car," he said.
"Me and these flies are one.
"It's too cool for flies in Edinburgh, they freeze."
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