I don’t own a single Elvis album, but I’ve always believed that visiting Graceland is something that every Southerner should do. After all, his big white house is the No. 2 most recognizable home in the country-second only to the one in Washington, D.C.

Once a year, you can visit Graceland for free, by candlelight, alongside thousands of people. The hush of the crowd and the sea of white candles casts this iconic mansion in a whole new light. If you’ve ever wondered how a man who died 29 years ago continues to touch lives around the world, visit Graceland on August 15. On this evening, thousands of people gather for a candlelight vigil that lasts into the early hours of the anniversary of Elvis’s death. One needn’t be an Elvis fan to appreciate the strange wonder of this night, a singular event in American pop culture.

They Come From Around The World

Every year in August, flights arrive in Memphis filled with people who save their pennies, earmark their vacations, and cross oceans to attend Elvis Week.

“This is our Christmas,” said Chris and Stella Drummond, who first came here from Australia on their honeymoon. “This is all of our holidays put together.”

I met Chris and Stella just after midnight munching hamburgers near a chalk portrait of Elvis sketched in the middle of Elvis Presley Boulevard. They had parked their lawn chairs in the street in front of Graceland, which the cops block off for the candlelight vigil.

The couple was part of a peaceful crowd of thousands of fans who light white candles promptly at 9 p.m. This starts a quiet walk through Graceland’s Meditation Garden, where Elvis is buried. That may sound morbid, but it’s actually quite touching. And it offers a sense of why a man who died so many years ago remains relevant today.

Though Elvis fans generally are not the same people you see walking around Memphis in white jumpsuits and gold glasses, the idiosyncrasy of their gathering is not lost on them.

“Where else on the planet could you sit in the middle of the street at 12:30 a.m., burn candles, and eat a cheese-burger with 10,000 other people?” Chris asked with a smile.

Big Changes Ahead

Elvis once again made national headlines in 2005 when a billionaire media mogul purchased Elvis Presley Enterprises for $114 million. Buyer Robert F.X. Sillerman plans to overhaul Graceland. He intends to build additional hotels and a complex of shops, eateries, and more.

In March 2006, Graceland was named a National Historic Landmark by the Department of the Interior. To fans’ relief, the mansion that Elvis called home from 1957 to 1977 will not be changed, but “visitors can expect a better presentation of the Elvis story,” explains a Graceland representative.