Thousands of people turned up to the opening weekend of the exhibition with gallery staff forced to turn people away from sold out sessions.

Bendigo Art Gallery curatorial manager Lauren Ellis, who helped spearhead the effort to bring the exhibition to Bendigo, said it was thrilling to see people exploring it for the first time.

"Like any celebrity there is always fans but Elvis's connection to people is personal," she said. "Trawling through social media comments, people seem happy. I've never had a project where, overwhelmingly, all the comments were so positive."

Read more:

Ms Ellis said she realised the massive responsibility she was undertaking in putting the Elvis exhibition together for Bendigo.

"(Graceland's) Angie Marchese and her team gave us heaps of baseline advice," she said. "But there was still a lot do in terms shaping the story for Bendigo.

"We're not a rock and roll museum. So making decisions with the space we have, we had to have more of this part of the story and less of another.

"It's just huge. It's the biggest exhibition we've done, the biggest one I have curated. It's a great story, with great objects and someone people are ready to love."

Read more Elvis stories:

The cherry on top of the gallery's efforts was welcoming Elvis' former wife Priscilla Presley to view and open the exhibition.

"It was one of things until last minute didn't know if could happen," Ms Ellis said. "It was amazing. That was my biggest moment of sudden nerves, when (director Jess Bridgfoot) and I took her on a private viewing.

"Hopefully she feels Elvis' story has been told faithfully and sensitively.

"Symbolically for us at gallery and for the credibility of the project, her blessing means a lot. She is an ultimate, authentic Elvis symbol and having her here was a show of faith and approval of what the gallery has done."

Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can access our trusted content: