Dolly Parton Day: How Nashville is turning September 25 into a citywide tribute to the music icon | Today’s news
Nashville commemorates Dolly Parton Day on Friday, September 25, with more than 145 events planned across the city where fans and businesses pay tribute to the singer through music, community gatherings and charitable donations.
Nashville turns Dolly Parton Day into a city-wide celebration
The date has a direct connection to one of Parton’s most famous songs, “9 to 5”. The celebrations come a month after Parton died in Nashville at the age of 80 on August 25. Her family has requested that donations be made to Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library in her memory.
The day has also been formally framed as a “Day Like Dolly” by the Dollywood Foundation, with the organization encouraging communities around the world to support local Imagination Library programs. The initiative is meant to continue Parton’s emphasis on children, reading and giving back.
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In Nashville, cafes and bars are offering Dolly-themed food and drinks, with pink prominently featured on several menus. More than 30 local music venues are also scheduled to perform “9 to 5” at 5 p.m., giving the city’s music scene a collective moment of remembrance.
The day culminates with a fireworks display in the city center at 9:25 p.m., another nod to the September 25 date.
Celebrations of Parton’s philanthropy
Several events on the day also raise money for causes related to Parton’s charity work.
The Grand Ole Opry will donate $5 from every ticket sold to the Friday performance and tour to the Imagination Library. Hattie B’s will donate one book for each qualifying entrée purchased at its non-airport locations in Tennessee.
Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood’s Friends in Low Places honky-tonk is taking the fundraising effort further, with all proceeds from the day going to the Nashville Public Library and Imagination Library. The venue also announced it will be collecting donations for children’s books.
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Twenty organizations were selected to receive donations in four areas associated with Parton’s philanthropy: helping children succeed, helping people heal, helping neighbors in need, and creating opportunities through music and the arts.
Participating groups include Nashville CARES, Dismas House, Girls Write Nashville, Nashville Children’s Theater and the Country Music Hall of Fame’s Words & Music program.
The response goes beyond Tennessee. Imagination Library branches in Florida, Virginia and Ohio have reported increased donations and registrations since Parton’s death, while Read Aloud West Virginia matches donations made this month to local Imagination Library branches when contributors write “in memory of Dolly.”
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Imagination Library in London is expanding its reach by doubling the number of boroughs it covers.
The program, which Parton founded in 1995, now sends more than one million books to children every month in several countries.
For Nashville, Friday’s celebrations offer a way to remember Parton through the songs that made her famous, while continuing the work she put at the center of her public life: giving children access to books and encouraging them to read.
