SB: Good morning, Rosemarie. Thank you for taking time from your busy schedule to chat with me this morning.
RGO: Good Morning Carolyn. It is always my pleasure.
SB: It has been two months since the end of the 2019 Collingwood Elvis Festival. Were there certain tasks you needed to complete to close up the festival?
RGO: It’s always a busy week following the Festival. We needed to get score sheets out to Elvis Presley Enterprises, get payments out to suppliers, and I lovingly call it the purge of paperwork and notes that are no longer needed to be kept. I love that part! LOL
SB: When you look back at the 25th Collingwood Elvis Festival what will stay in foremost in your mind, and what will remain close to your heart?
Rosemarie Garrity O’Brien at the 2018 Collingwood Elvis Festival. Photo Credit: Lori-Anne Crewe.
RGO: The entire history of the festival and my involvement will always stay in my head. The incredible stories and memories will never leave me. After all, it has been a part of my life and my working years for almost a quarter century. You just can’t forget that. As for my heart, all the incredible friends I have made, the talent that I have so blessed to work with and the overwhelming love I felt during this past festival will be in my heart until I take my last breath. I don’t think I cried so much in my entire life. When the audience stood up to give me a standing ovation, I was moved beyond words. I still tear up just reliving the moment in my mind. Life doesn't get better than that! Truly! I am so very proud of what the festival has accomplished and the joy that it brought to people’s lives, including mine. I have done something right and significant in my life and that was the Collingwood Elvis Festival and leaving an indelible memory is all anyone can be remembered for in their life. God love all the Elvis fans, the ETAs and my incredible team of colleagues for that. Oh and my husband who had to put up with me talking Elvis 99.8% of our time together. LOL
SB: What lessons have you learned about running a world class ETA festival over your years at the helm?
RGO: If there is one thing I’ve learned it is to always be prepared for the unexpected and that Murphy’s Law still rules event planning. Running a truly successful Festival means you must find that ideal balance between satisfying your budget, satisfying your Festival partners or sponsors and satisfying what your audience wants to experience at your event, and that balance is not always easy to find. In fact, sometimes you never find it; but I was lucky enough to actually create that balance. I tried to see the Festival from all sides. As an Elvis fan, what would I want to see and hear, as a sponsor what is important to my company as a venue what will bring me business while still being cost effective, and from the town’s perspective, how do we manage our budget and achieve our goals.
To anyone who is thinking of starting a Festival, it is not as easy as it looks. It is stressful, worrisome, endless hours of work and sleep deprivation, but worth every single second when you watch your audience smiling, singing along, dancing and having a fabulous time! Someone once likened it to childbirth…the pain is excruciating, but the joy you experience with the end result makes the pain forgettable and worth it. Odd analogy but it fits. LOL
SB: What special gifts did you receive at the 25th Collingwood Elvis Festival?
RGO: I was so truly blessed, but I have been each and every year! I have such loyal and devoted fans and friends. I can’t think of many jobs that you experience so much joy, love and appreciation as I have been lucky enough to find working for this Festival.
ETA Robin Kelly performing in 2018 at the Collingwood Elvis Festival . Photo Credit: Lori-Anne Crewe.
In 2019 alone, ETA and dear friend Robin Kelly presented me with a guitar that he purchased himself and then had all the ETAs sign it for me. How incredible is that? I cried….on stage….again!
Then my boss, Dean Collver, presented me with a huge framed photo of our 25th Anniversary Souvenir Program cover that was signed with messages from all my work friends, the ETAs, some fans and volunteers and they actually had to begin signing the back side of the frame because there were so many who wanted to be included on it. And the words that Dean spoke about me, on stage during the presentation took my breath away. I cried…again…on stage!
Dean even arranged for my former boss, Peter Dunbar, to show up and present me with an absolutely gorgeous bouquet of flowers and I was so shocked to see Peter that I…cried, again, on stage! See the pattern forming here? LOL
I was given mugs, jewellery, gift cards, taken out to dinner at my favorite restaurant which had become a tradition every year, taken for lunch after the festival, again an annual tradition, and other personal gifts that will remain private with me but those folks know who they are and what their generosity meant to me.
My apartment and my office are just full of incredible gifts from over the years, but one I do want to mention was given to me last year as a birthday gift from some fans who became dear friends and they had a photo of me with 2017 Ultimate Champion Gordon Hendricks that I love and they had one of the Elvis photographers, Louis Young, photoshop a picture of Elvis into the photo and had it inscribed with “Just Pretend” on it, which first, is my favourite Elvis song, but also was what I always wanted…to have met Elvis; but this is as close as they could get to making that dream a reality. I treasure it and both photos are framed and remain in my office.
SB: What are your plans for the next two years?
RGO: Well I will still be working with the Town of Collingwood as their Festival Coordinator, so I will be working on all our other Town events, which means that I will be overseeing, or at least somehow involved, with whomever becomes the new management of the Festival. And for all those fans who have been so concerned about me and for me, I’m happy with this and I’m looking forward to what comes next in 2020, really! I am totally complete, satisfied and proud of what I have done to bring the Festival to where it is, so maybe some new and younger (LOL) blood can reignite some excitement, or offer new initiatives to re-energize the festival which I am also happy with. Progress can be a great thing. Change can also be a great thing. You need to give it a chance. You either progress with the times or get left behind. That’s just reality.
Rosemarie with ETAs at the 2018 Flaming Star Elvis Festival. Photo Credit: Carolyn MacArthur.
I have already been approached to become a Festival Judge which is something I would never accept while I was the lead staff for the Collingwood Elvis Festival. I felt it was a huge conflict of interest and that made me uncomfortable; but I will admit that I was asked to be a fill-in judge during the Gospel Competition at the Flaming Star Festival, which by the way is a wonderful event if you have never been to it, and I accepted the challenge and did enjoy it, but it was the only exception I made to my rule at that time. Now that I am not in that management type role, I think I may try my hand at judging since I am an Elvis fan too and enjoy attending and listening to the ETAs. Bring it on! I’m up for a new challenge!
I will also have a chance to pursue some new opportunities with my own company, Creative Gal Productions, which is a partnership between myself and my friend, Elena Chisholm. We will keep our hand in the Elvis industry but we also want to offer more legends in both shows and dances. People love to dance. It’s great to go to a concert, but I miss the 80s when we could go to a nightclub and dance. There aren’t many of those left these days. I’ll stop there because now I’m just showing my age. LOL
SB: What can you tell us about the future of the Collingwood Elvis Festival?
RGO: Well I won’t say “no comment” but I really don’t have much information to share at this time. The management of the event will be offered under a Special Event permit process to a 3rd party. We currently have some Expressions of Interest and they will be able to submit their application, with their plan, in the order that we received their interest so at this point, it is too soon to speak of anything definite. The Festival is hopefully going to remain on the same weekend as it has in the past, and remain in Collingwood--at least that is the goal. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see how things roll out, right?
SB: What closing words would you like to say to friends, family, fans, co-workers, volunteers and ETAs?
RGO: It has been an incredible journey over the past 23 years for me. All the memories, laughter, tears, losses and changes have brought us all together as an Elvis family. Everything that has made this Festival so outstanding, we have built and shared together! Although I am so humbled and honoured to be made feel like I was the only person responsible for the Festival’s success, that couldn’t be farther from the truth! Every staff member that I worked with, every tribute artist that came to the festival, every fan and volunteer who supported the festival, all the venues, sponsors and partners, including media which includes you Carolyn and Sideburns Magazine, one of among many…all played a vital role in “raising” the Collingwood Elvis Festival to the incomparable event that it became. And to Billy Cann, who was the original ETA who sparked the creation of this phoenix who rose to incredible heights, I share my heartfelt appreciation, love, respect and thanks.
Rosemarie Garrity O’Brien, 2019 Collingwood Elvis Festival. Photo Credit: Lori-Anne Crewe.
They say that nothing lasts forever but the memories I have in my heart certainly will!
SB: Thank you very much, Rosemarie. It has been such a pleasure chatting with you.
RBO: Thanks, Carolyn, for letting me have this special opportunity to share my thoughts and feelings. I wish Sideburns continued success and I will look forward to seeing you at the other fantastic festivals that now exist for fans to enjoy and support! God bless!
For more about the incredible life of Rosemarie Garrity O’Brien, please check out Introducing: Rosemarie Garrity-O’Brien, Collingwood Elvis Festival