Dollywood 2024 Passholder Preview Day
We were invited to Dollywood in the heart of the Smoky Mountains to see what they have in store for the 2024 season, which will be the longest ever at 281 days of operation. Making the announcement of course was Dollywood’s Dreamer-In-Chief, Dolly Parton herself!
Dolly welcomed the absolutely packed theater full of annual passholders who arrived hours in advance of park opening to see her! She made it clear that '“making every moment matter” was an idea at the core of everything done a Dollywood, and this was especially seen through a redoubled effort at the park to focus on live entertainment. While the park already is at the top in the industry in delivery world-class live entertainment, they have invested over 1 Million dollars into refreshing every theater and making sure that every theater has a show during every season!
Dollywood has a festival lined up for nearly ever operational day in 2024! Coming off the success of introducing the I Will Always Love You festival in 2023, it is making a return and an extended run time featuring many local music acts.
Dolly also invited up on stage Eugene Naughton, President of the Dollywood Company to debut her Sing-a-Long with Dolly live show that will invite guests to, as the title implies, sing along to classic and modern Dolly Parton hits on stage in the park!
A key part of any festival at Dollywood is making sure that guests know what festival it is as they explore the park, and that remains true for the I Will Always Love You festival as well.
The Celebrity Theater, the largest venue on Dollywood property will host a brand new musical show called From the Heart. This show following the life and music of Dolly featuring original compositions and exciting effects.
Finally, Dolly gave us an update on a project near and dear to her, the Dolly Parton Experience, Announced during last year’s passholder preview, this project is a complete overhaul of the old Chasing Rainbows museum that told the story of Dolly’s life. This new multimedia experience taking up 3x the space is now set to open on May 24.
After the presentation, we were invited to the Front Porch Café to experience just some of the new food offerings at the park this year!
Highlights include the Fried Tomatoes and Mozzarella with spciy tomato jam and balsamic, Country Fried Chicken, and Mason Jar Cheesecakes!! They are all incredible.
We then took a lap around the park to see what else is new!
A highlight was seeing Lightning Rod already back up and running with its new high speed chain lift replacing its previously iconic LSM launch. While already there is a lot of displeasure voiced about the loss of this unique element, the significant increase in ride uptime should be more than worth the loss.
Take a look at a small selection of the new merchandise that we saw around the park! We love the new cinnamon bread merch!
And that’s only a small sample of what is new in 2024 at Dollywood! Be sure to make plans to visit the park during any of their many unique and entertaining festivals this year!
Thank you to Dollywood for inviting us and we cannot wait to return soon! Purchase tickets to Dollywood using this link.