For David Quick, Christmas is on Jan. 8 — Elvis' birthday. For the 19th year, the co-founder organized and coordinated a two-day music festival on Jan. 8 and Jan. 9, called "Elvisfest," where bands and Elvis enthusiasts travel from all over the country to Bailey's Sports Grille in Chapel Hill to enjoy what Quick calls "best first party of the year." Assistant Arts & Entertainment Editor Ryan Schocket spoke with him about the festival, his burning love for Elvis and Elvis' love of bacon.
The Daily Tar Heel: Tell me about Elvisfest.
David Quick: Generally, we try to put it around Elvis’ birthday. It doesn’t always line up, but we put it on the closest weekend we can. What we have is about 10 bands per night. They have to play some Elvis — they don’t have to play all Elvis.
DTH: Why schedule it on his birthday?
DQ: When people talk about Elvis, they always talk about when he dies. We just went through Christmas, which is when Jesus was born, so I thought, ‘Why doesn’t anyone celebrate when Elvis was born?’ It winds up being the first, best party of the year because everyone is let down by what they did for New Years — it’s always too expensive and a let down. Next thing up is Elvisfest.
DTH: Why do you do this?
DQ: I was inspired in something in Chapel Hill called Sleazefest. I enjoyed the way they presented the bands and the different venues involved. I always make sure Elvisfest has two stages to ping-pong the bands. If you don’t like what’s happening in one room, you can go in the next room. No boredom. But, I do it because, hey, no one else was doing it. Everyone else was doing an Elvis death thing in August. I thought, ‘Nobody’s doing this. I’m just gonna do it.’
DTH: Do people dress up?
DQ: The bands don’t, but people do. My wife will be dressed as Elvis. A lot of women do. It’s a very unique crowd — it’s not just local. People come from all over.
