Forty-One Seasons Strong, and Dollywood's Most Ambitious Year Yet Opens With a $50 Million First-of-Its-Kind Attraction

Dollywood opens its 41st season to all guests on March 13, 2026, launching simultaneously with the I Will Always Love You Music Festival and NightFlight Expedition, a $50 million indoor hybrid coaster and whitewater raft ride that is the first of its kind in the world, operating from 10 AM with standard daily hours throughout a season running to January 3, 2027.

Event details

Dollywood opens its 41st season to all guests on Friday, March 13, 2026, marking the start of what park President Eugene Naughton has described as the most ambitious single-season programming expansion in the park’s history. The opening day coincides with the launch of the I Will Always Love You Music Festival, which runs through April 12, and sets the tone for a season anchored by NightFlight Expedition, a more than $50 million attraction that represents the largest investment in a single ride in Dollywood Parks and Resorts history. Dolly Parton attended opening day in person, sharing her characteristically direct assessment: the park has grown further since 1986 than anything she imagined when it first opened. The park operates from 10 AM on opening day, with standard daily hours varying by season through its operating calendar extending to January 3, 2027.

NightFlight Expedition: What the New Attraction Actually Delivers

NightFlight Expedition is the first indoor family hybrid coaster and whitewater raft ride built anywhere in the world, combining four distinct ride experiences within a single five-and-a-half-minute journey. Guests soar on a nighttime simulated flight over the Smoky Mountains, move through a whitewater rafting sequence through more than 500,000 gallons of surging water, traverse a mountain ridge on a roller coaster section, and navigate a shimmering bioluminescent lake by boat, all within a single ride structure. The attraction serves an estimated 1,200 guests per hour, making it the park’s highest-capacity major attraction and the most significant infrastructure addition to the Dollywood footprint in years. Special ride preview days for Gold and Diamond season passholders preceded the general opening, providing those membership tiers an early entry window before the public launch.

If You’re Going With Kids: The I Will Always Love You Music Festival, opening simultaneously with the park, features Dollywood’s curated spring programming across multiple performance stages and includes a Dolly Parton sing-along and the production “From The Heart: The Life and Music of Dolly Parton,” both of which scale well for family audiences. The festival also opens against a backdrop of spring blooms across the park’s landscape plantings, making mid-March one of the visually richest periods in the park’s seasonal cycle.

Pigeon Forge and the Smoky Mountain Gateway

Dollywood sits in Pigeon Forge, at the northern gateway of Great Smoky Mountains National Park, with the Sugarlands Visitor Center and the park’s primary trail network approximately 15 minutes south on US-441. The national park in mid-March carries the first wildflowers of the Appalachian spring before the summer crowd pressure arrives, making the combination of Dollywood’s opening programming and a morning trail walk in the park one of the most complete family day structures available in the Tennessee mountains in any season. For families making Dollywood a multi-day anchor, Lake.com lists cabin and vacation rental options throughout the Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg corridor at varying price points and proximity levels to the park entrance.