Dollywood celebrating “40 years of love”

Popular Tennessee theme park Dollywood is celebrating its 40 anniversary.

Pete Owens, the Vice President of Marketing at the theme park sat down with WOKV’s Chase Bunker to talk about the park’s 40-year history, what it’s doing to celebrate, and things you should do when you arrive.

“It’s certainly a milestone for us,” says Owens on the park celebrating 40 years. “In this area where we are, in the Great Smoky Mountains, there’s been an attraction here since the 1960s, but it’s evolved over the years. I mean we’re in, probably, one of the most beautiful places you can be on the planet, adjacent to Great Smoky Mountains National Park, and that was really the first attraction. But when Dolly got involved in 1985 to create Dollywood, it really changed. I mean, the market itself grew and has grown exponentially because of the growth of Dollywood. We welcome a little over three and a half million guests at Dollywood and a little over four million completely across all of our properties here at Dollywood Parks and Resorts. It’s been an unbelievable run for us but we’re just getting started.”

To celebrate the event, Owens says the park will have a new show called “Play On.” “Dollywood started as an entertainment park, and we’re really known for entertainment. We’ve been the number one entertainment park in the world for about the last 30 years, and we’re celebrating all of the great production shows that we’ve done through the years, in that show,” says Owens. He adds the park will have a celebratory drone and fireworks show that will have drones with fireworks attached to them.

If you would like to visit Dollywood this Summer, you can make plans on the park’s website. For the top three things to do when you visit the park, listen to the full interview.