{"id":586683,"date":"2026-09-01T07:56:11","date_gmt":"2026-09-01T07:56:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/586683\/"},"modified":"2026-09-01T07:56:11","modified_gmt":"2026-09-01T07:56:11","slug":"dolly-parton-estate-announces-dollyfest-to-celebrate-her-legacy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/586683\/","title":{"rendered":"Dolly Parton estate announces ‘Dollyfest’ to celebrate her legacy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dolly Parton is not done yet. The estate behind the icon, who died of cancer last week<\/a> at age 80, has announced Dollyfest, a two-day festival to be held in Nashville and London across two consecutive weekends in 2027.<\/p>\n

According to a press release today the festival was originally scheduled to take place in January 2026 \u2014 around her 80th birthday \u2014 and was going to feature Parton as a performer<\/a> and host. Now, it will serve as a celebration of her legacy<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had the venue booked and we had the announcement ready to go. And then, in August 2025, Dolly had to take a step back after her initial health challenges.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A portrait of the late Dolly Parton surrounded by flowers and cards in a memorial sits outside her home Thursday, Aug. 27, 2026 (Source: Associated Press)<\/p>\n

“A lot of people always say, WWDD (What Would Dolly Do?), and, well, at this moment, Dollyfest is WDWD (What Dolly Would Do!),” organiser Danny Nozell, founder and CEO of CTK Enterprises, said in a statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are not discouraging people from celebrating Dolly in the ways they choose. However, as far as a traditional memorial goes, that is not something Dolly wanted,\u201d he continued. <\/p>\n

\u201cSo, instead, it feels more appropriate for us to take a beat, let all the tributes that immediately make sense occur naturally, and then, see through this festival-style concept that was truly dreamed up by Dolly.\u201d<\/p>\n

There was a private service for Parton on Friday attended only by immediate family, The Associated Press has confirmed. There will not be a public ceremony, per Parton’s wishes.<\/p>\n

Rise from humble beginnings to music star was just the start of her story and contribution. (Source: 1News)<\/p>\n

Parton’s great-niece, Lainey Parton, posted a tribute<\/a> on Instagram on Sunday, writing in the caption: “This is a really hard post for me to make. I wanted to wait until after my granny was laid to rest yesterday before I tried to put any of this into words. <\/p>\n

“From the time I was little, my granny always had a way of making me feel like I was enough. She never made my dreams feel too big or made me feel like I couldn\u2019t do something. She believed in me before I even knew how to believe in myself.”<\/p>\n

Ticket information and dates for Dollyfest are forthcoming. Fans can sign up to receive additional details at Dolly Parton’s official website. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dolly Parton is not done yet. The estate behind the icon, who died of cancer last week at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":586684,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[430,156,157,111,139,64,69],"class_list":["post-586683","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment","tag-music","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-north-america","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/586683","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=586683"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/586683\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/586684"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=586683"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=586683"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=586683"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}