There's a specific kind of energy that settles over Dollywood when it opens for the new year in March — the park quiet after winter, the mountains still bare, the first warmth of Appalachian spring just beginning to suggest itself. For the past several years, Dollywood has opened its season with a festival built entirely around the music and legacy of Dolly Parton herself, and what started as a new experiment in 2023 has become one of the most beloved events on the park's annual calendar.
The I Will Always Love You Festival is the most personal seasonal event Dollywood runs. Everything else — the Flower & Food Festival, the Harvest Festival, Smoky Mountain Christmas — is built around a season or a theme. This one is built around a person. And if you have any connection to country music, Appalachian storytelling, or the particular kind of songwriting that makes a three-minute song feel like an entire life, it's worth planning a spring trip around.
What Is the I Will Always Love You Festival?
<cite index="26-1">Dollywood's I Will Always Love You Festival runs March 13 through April 12, 2026</cite> — the 2027 edition is expected in the same late winter to mid-spring window based on the established pattern, with exact dates to be announced at dollywood.com. <cite index="27-1">The festival was introduced in 2023 and is the newest of Dollywood's seasonal events, running from when the park opens for the season through mid-April.</cite>
<cite index="22-1">The festival welcomes spring in spectacular style, with the park coming alive with music, color, and the heartfelt spirit of songwriting that connects us all.</cite> It's included with standard Dollywood admission — no separate ticket required — and runs every operating day of the park during its window.
The name says everything about what the festival is. "I Will Always Love You" — the song Dolly Parton wrote in 1973 about leaving her mentor Porter Wagoner to pursue her solo career, which became one of the most-covered songs in country music history — is as much a statement of identity as it is a title. The festival built around it draws on Parton's full body of work, the storytelling tradition of Appalachian music, and the specific combination of joy, heart, and occasional tears that characterizes the best of her catalog.
The Shows: The Heart of the Festival
<cite index="22-1">Live performances at the festival include the Dolly Parton Sing-Along and From The Heart: The Life & Music of Dolly Parton — the 2024 Golden Ticket Award winner for Best New Show.</cite>
From The Heart: The Life & Music of Dolly Parton is the centerpiece production of the festival — a theatrical journey through Parton's life and career told through her music, with live performers interpreting the songs and the stories behind them. The Golden Ticket Award, voted on by amusement industry professionals worldwide, is the most prestigious recognition in the theme park entertainment industry. Winning it for Best New Show in 2024 is a meaningful distinction for a production that competes with major park shows globally.
The show covers the arc of Parton's career from her Appalachian childhood in Locust Ridge, Tennessee — just a few ridges over from where Dollywood sits — through her emergence as a songwriter, her long partnership and eventual split from Porter Wagoner (which produced "I Will Always Love You"), her film career, and her decades as one of the most beloved public figures in American life. It's not a tribute band performance — it's a storytelling production with a specific beginning, middle, and end.
The Dolly Parton Sing-Along is the looser, more participatory counterpart — a communal celebration of the songbook that gets the audience involved rather than watching from the seats. If you've ever been in a room full of strangers all singing "Jolene" at the same time, you have a rough idea of what the energy feels like. If you haven't, this is a good place to find out.
<cite index="22-1">New additions for recent festival editions have included the high-energy Moto Motion: Freestyle Showdown and the wildly creative Artrageous, adding more excitement to a lineup filled with inspiration and joy.</cite> The full entertainment lineup for the 2027 edition will be announced by Dollywood in late winter — check the official site for confirmed shows as the season approaches.
The Tasting Pass and Festival Food
<cite index="26-1">Spring at the I Will Always Love You Festival tastes even sweeter — a Tasting Pass lets guests enjoy multiple sweet and savory festival favorites throughout the park, perfect for letting your tastebuds sing along.</cite>
The Tasting Pass format — five festival food items at select locations for one price — is the same model that works so well at the Flower & Food and Harvest festivals. The difference here is the food program leans into the comfort food traditions of Appalachian cooking alongside more creative seasonal options: think buttermilk-based dishes, cornbread preparations, and the kind of Southern cooking that Parton has talked about her whole career as central to her upbringing and identity.
Specific menu items for the 2027 festival will be announced closer to opening day. The Dollywood app is the most reliable place to track what's available during your specific visit, with menus updated in real time by location.
The Festival Merchandise
<cite index="26-1">Exclusive festival merchandise includes crafty keepsakes and wearable favorites — limited-time finds that let you carry the music, memories, and meaning of the festival home long after your visit.</cite>
The merchandise program at this festival is more deliberately personal than at other Dollywood seasonal events — because the source material is more personal. Limited-edition items tied to specific Parton songs, albums, and moments in her career appear during this window and aren't available at other times of year. For serious Dolly fans, this is worth knowing about in advance.
The Dolly Parton Experience
The I Will Always Love You Festival is also the best time of year to engage with the Dolly Parton Experience — the expanded exhibit and interpretive spaces throughout the park that tell the story of Parton's life and legacy in greater depth than a single show can cover.
<cite index="22-1">The Dolly Parton Experience includes new sculptures and elements added for the spring season,</cite> with displays covering her childhood, her early recording career, her film work, her philanthropy (including the Imagination Library, which has donated over 200 million books to children), and her decision to decline the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Congressional Gold Medal before eventually accepting the latter. The full arc of it — from a child singing on the porch of a one-room cabin to one of the most consequential figures in American popular culture — lands differently when you're standing in the mountains where it started.
The Umbrella Sky and Visual Installations
<cite index="22-1">The park comes alive with color during the festival, including a picturesque Umbrella Sky installation — a rainbow-hued wonderland where sunlight streams through the immersive installation, painting vibrant colors across the sky and even the ground beneath your feet.</cite>
The Umbrella Sky is one of those installations that photographs extremely well but is better experienced in person — the effect of walking beneath hundreds of suspended colorful umbrellas as sunlight filters through them changes as you move, and it creates natural gathering points and photo opportunities throughout the park. It's become one of the signature visual elements of the spring season at Dollywood and a reliable backdrop for the festival's social media presence.
Why March and Early April Are Worth Considering
The I Will Always Love You Festival runs during what is arguably the most underrated window in the Dollywood calendar. March and early April bring several advantages over the park's summer and fall peak:
Crowds are significantly lower. Spring break weeks are the exception — the park fills in mid-to-late March when school breaks create a surge — but weekday visits in early March and after Easter tend to be genuinely uncrowded. Wait times are shorter, shows are easier to get into, and the park feels more spacious.
The mountains are waking up. Late March in the Smokies is wildflower season beginning at lower elevations — the park's own grounds are among the first places you'll see spring blooms, and the surrounding ridgelines are transitioning from bare winter to early green. If you're combining Dollywood with hiking in the national park, this window catches the Porters Creek and Greenbrier area trillium displays at or approaching peak.
The full ride roster is available. Dollywood opens its full attraction lineup for the new season, including NightFlight Expedition — the world's first indoor hybrid coaster and whitewater river raft ride that debuted in 2026. The combination of the festival programming and full ride access makes a spring visit as complete as any other time of year.
Pricing. Spring operating days are typically priced lower than summer peak, making this one of the better-value windows for a Dollywood visit, particularly if you're flexible on specific dates.
Practical Tips
Check the operating calendar. <cite index="7-1">Dollywood is not open every day during the festival period — check the official operating calendar before booking.</cite> The park generally opens at 10 a.m. on operating days.
Spring break timing. If crowd avoidance is a priority, check when major regional school spring breaks fall and plan around them. The two weeks of heaviest spring break traffic are noticeably busier than the rest of the festival window.
Downloading the Dollywood app before your visit gives you real-time show schedules, dining menus by location, and wait times — the most practical tool for navigating a full festival day.
Tasting Pass. Purchase the Tasting Pass at the start of your visit rather than mid-day. Festival food locations sometimes sell out of popular items by late afternoon, and getting the pass early gives you the widest selection window.
Getting There
Dollywood is located at 2700 Dollywood Parks Blvd, Pigeon Forge, TN 37863. From most cabin areas in Pigeon Forge and Sevierville, it's a 10–15 minute drive. From Gatlinburg, plan for about 25 minutes.
March operating hours and parking details are confirmed on the official Dollywood operating calendar — check dollywood.com for the most current information as your visit approaches.
Planning Your Spring Stay
The I Will Always Love You Festival window — mid-March through mid-April — sits in one of the best shoulder-season windows on the Smokies calendar. Better value than summer, quieter than fall foliage season, and the national park in late March and April is genuinely beautiful with the wildflower season building from the valley floors upward.
We keep a small, hand-picked portfolio of cabins across the Sevierville, Pigeon Forge, and Gatlinburg area. Spring is one of the most pleasant seasons to be in the Smokies, and cabin availability is considerably better than summer or fall — take a look at what's available at smokiestays.com/cabins.
The I Will Always Love You Festival runs annually in spring at Dollywood, typically mid-March through mid-April. Exact 2027 dates and the full entertainment lineup had not been announced at time of writing. For confirmed dates, show schedules, and ticket information, visit dollywood.com/themepark/festivals/i-will-always-love-you.