Long Live the King!

Many Memphians don't truly appreciate our whole Elvis heritage but they should. We just had Elvis week here, which marks the anniversary of the death of the King. This years was the 30th anniversary. The crowds were huge -- about 75,000. Elvis week has a bunch of high points but the candlelight vigil on the anniversary of his death is something that everyone should do once. Thousands of people (mostly from places other than Memphis) line up for hours and hours to walk past Elvis' grave to pay respects. The first person in line often has to camp out for a day or more to get the "pole position". The procession lasts all night. While there are many events during Elvis week to have some fun at the fat Elvis image, the vigil is not one of them. People at the vigil are serious. The fun stuff includes the Elvis tribute artist contest. Some of those fake "Elvi" are really good. Others are terrible but there's some real entertainment in how bad they are. Then there are the Korean Elvi, the Indian Elvi, the little kid Elvi etc. Basically during Elvis week, you can see "Elvis" all over Memphis. It's a fun and funky time of year to be here. The tourists pump thousands of dollars into the local economy so that's always a plus as well.

Elvis was an incredibly generous man. he gave thousands and thousands of dollars to local charities and often anonymously. So you can literally find lots and lots of people in Memphis who have some personal connection to the King even thirty years after he passed away. His generosity was just one of the reasons he remains so popular all these years later and even in death keeps giving back to the city.

the owners of Graceland are in the planning stages of a major expansion of the Graceland area. They will spend several hundred millions dollars over the next few years to dramatically expand and modernize the facilities around the mansion. Graceland is the second most visited house in the United States after the White House so an investment of that kind is certainly warranted.

Elvis, Graceland and Elvis week are just a few of the many reasons that Memphis is a great place to live. Like the song says, "I'm going to Graceland, Graceland, Memphis, Tennessee!"