What Dolly Parton told us about her new museum, wardrobe exhibit coming to Dollywood
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When Dolly Parton decides which costumes, outfits and gowns to display in the Dolly Parton Experience, she said she’ll consider the good, the bad and the “tacky.”
A wardrobe exhibit is just one part of this immersive, multimedia expansion coming to Dollywood in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, over the next few years, starting with a new Dolly Parton Museum in 2024.
She and her team have kept literally hundreds of her custom-designed outfits. “All of it,” she said, from her 62-year career in music, film and pop culture. The grand costumes of “The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas” and the office attire of “9 to 5.”
"Some of them are embarrassing to look at,” she said of her decades of ensembles. “But they were still part of my life story. Of course, everybody likes to look good all the time, but that's not possible if you're telling a story."
The entire Dollywood theme park, which opens March 11 for its 38th season, is Dolly-inspired. But the Dolly Parton Experience will use immersive multimedia storytelling – her voice, her story, her music, her images - to tell Parton’s journey from her childhood in the Smoky Mountains to her artistic career on the world's biggest stage.
Turning the story of her life into a sort of biopic is a new challenge, she said. It’s a new technological frontier for Dollywood, too. Picture the Van Gogh Immersive Experience, but with Dolly’s rare combination of rustic glamour.
That story will include her youth, her family, her faith, her dreams, her personality and “all the miles that I've traveled, emotionally as well as physically, and mentally, too. Just the whole evolution of my whole life and my career to become what I am now."
A world-touring version of the experience is in the works.
This Dollywood season, which includes the debut of the Big Bear Mountain roller coaster and HeartSong Resort and Lodge, feels different from the others, Parton said.
Big Bear Mountain, set to launch in May, is Dollywood’s largest, longest and most expensive roller coaster. HeartSong is the rustic retreat that doubles the park’s onsite lodgings.
Photos: The ageless Dolly Parton through the years
That’s on the heels of the park’s biggest-ever year in 2022, which Parton attributes to the joy of getting back out into the world after life shut down for the COVID-19 pandemic. Dollywood’s investments and results show it’s serious about competing with the likes of Disney World and Universal Studios.
Parton took it as a good sign that on March 10, season passholder preview day, the parking lot was full before the park even opened.
With the Dolly Parton Experience, three more resorts after HeartSong and a campground on the way, visitors to the Smoky Mountains will have plenty of new things to try in 2023 and beyond.
It's all part of a $500 million, 10-year strategic plan to elevate Dollywood Parks & Resorts to a premier and eventually year-round destination.
Smoky Mountain attractions:Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg attractions are ready to start the 2023 season - with more to come
And surely there’ll be something special in the works for the park’s 40th season in 2025. Dolly’s not yet sure what, or at least she’s not telling.
"That's half the excitement of it though, is what's gonna be next,” she said. “It's kind of how I live my life. I know I'm gonna be coming up with something. Don't always know what it is, but I get excited thinking about it."
Brenna McDermott can be reached at brenna.mcdermott@knoxnews.com. Support our local news efforts by becoming a Knox News subscriber.
This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Dolly Parton on how the new Dollywood museum will tell her story
