Dolly Parton Day: How Nashville is turning 25 September into a citywide tribute to the music icon

Dolly Parton Day is being marked across Nashville and beyond with concerts, themed events and fundraisers, as fans honour the late singer’s legacy through music and her long-running commitment to children’s literacy.

Nashville is marking Dolly Parton Day on Friday, September 25, with more than 145 events planned across the city as fans and businesses pay tribute to the singer through music, community gatherings and charitable giving.

Nashville turns Dolly Parton Day into a citywide celebration

The date carries a direct connection to one of Parton’s best-known songs, “9 to 5”. The celebrations come a month after Parton died in Nashville at the age of 80 on 25 August. Her family had asked that donations be made to Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library in her memory.

The day has also been formally framed as “Give Like Dolly Day” by the Dollywood Foundation, with the organisation encouraging communities around the world to support local Imagination Library programmes. The initiative is intended to continue Parton’s emphasis on children, reading and giving back.

In Nashville, coffee shops and bars are offering Dolly-themed food and drinks, with pink featuring prominently across several menus. More than 30 local music venues are also scheduled to perform “9 to 5” at 5pm, giving the city’s music scene a collective moment of remembrance.

The day will culminate with a downtown fireworks display at 9:25pm, another nod to the September 25 date.

Celebrations linked to Parton’s philanthropy

Several of the day’s events are also raising money for causes associated with Parton’s charitable work.

The Grand Ole Opry is donating $5 from every ticket sold for Friday’s shows and tours to the Imagination Library. Hattie B’s is donating one book for every qualifying entrée bought at its Tennessee locations outside the airport.

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 has also announced that it will collect children’s book donations.

Twenty organisations have been selected to receive donations across four areas associated with Parton’s philanthropy: helping children succeed, helping people heal, assisting neighbours in need and creating opportunities through music and the arts.

Participating groups include Nashville CARES, Dismas House, Girls Write Nashville, Nashville Children’s Theatre and the Country Music Hall of Fame’s Words & Music programme.

The response extends beyond Tennessee. Imagination Library affiliates in Florida, Virginia and Ohio have reported increased donations and registrations since Parton’s death, while Read Aloud West Virginia is matching donations made this month to local Imagination Library affiliates when contributors write “in memory of Dolly”.

In London, the Imagination Library is also expanding its reach by doubling the number of boroughs it covers.

The programme, which Parton founded in 1995, now sends more than one million books to children each month across 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 placed at the centre of her public life: giving children access to books and encouraging them to read.

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