Elvis Presley's Graceland to get look-a-like in Denmark

Builders in Denmark laid the first brick Tuesday of a copy of Elvis Presley's famous estate Graceland, to open next year as part of a museum devoted to the "King" of rock'n roll, organisers said.

More than 8,000 kilometres (5,000 miles) from Elvis's estate in Memphis, Tennessee, the Danish Graceland is being built in the small western town of Randers, as a star addition to the town's prized Elvis museum.

"This exact copy of Graceland will include some 6,000 original possessions of the King like clothing, boots, guitars, letters, contracts and other diverse objects," museum director Henrik Knudsen, 46, told AFP.

When Randers' original Elvis museum opened 15 years ago it was "the only permanent museum on the King outside the United States," said Knudsen, who says he "became an Elvis fan at the age of eight after hearing 'Burning Love'."

It now receives around 25,000 visitors a year.

The Graceland look-a-like will display "thousands of Elvis artifacts currently on show at the museum in town, in addition to a large number of other items that are being stored in the cellar due to lacking space," Knudsen said.

It will also feature a shop, a restaurant and a cinema screening films about Elvis on a loop.

Set to open in April next year, it will be financed by three private investors and a local bank and is expected to cost a total of 26 million kroner (3.5 million euros, 4.3 million dollars).

Knudsen, who also operates musical-themed tours, said he was sure the Graceland museum would be a success and that one British tour operator was ready to bring around 10,000 tourists each year to the pilgrimage site.

The town's tourist office expects the Danish Graceland to attract between 75,000 and 125,000 visitors each year, mainly from Europe.