When Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood began thinking about how to honor Dolly Parton after her death, they did not choose another awards-stage tribute or a single night of songs.
They chose something Dolly herself would probably have understood immediately.
They chose to give.
On September 25, Brooks and Yearwood’s Friends in Low Places Bar & Honky-Tonk in downtown Nashville will turn over the entire day to Dolly’s legacy. Every dollar the venue brings in from 10 a.m. until 2 a.m. will be directed toward children’s literacy, supporting Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library and Nashville Public Library. The venue will also collect children’s books throughout the day.
The name they gave the event could hardly be more fitting.
Dolly Day.
And the date is no coincidence.
September 25 can be written as 9/25, an unmistakable nod to Dolly’s iconic song and movie “9 to 5.” What began as a tribute at one Lower Broadway venue is now becoming something much larger: Nashville itself is turning September 25 into a citywide celebration of Dolly’s music, generosity, kindness, and enormous impact on the community.
For Brooks and Yearwood, the choice to focus on literacy was deeply intentional.
Dolly founded the Imagination Library in 1995 in honor of her father, Robert Lee Parton Sr., who never learned to read or write. What began as a local program in East Tennessee eventually grew into an international effort that has placed more than 300 million free books into the hands of young children.
That is why Yearwood described the plan in unusually simple terms.
Whatever appears on the cash register at the end of the day will go toward what Dolly cared about.
For Brooks, the tribute is also about something larger than music. In announcing the event, he reflected on the way Dolly spent her life loving people and suggested that a person who lives that way never truly disappears.
That idea now seems to be spreading across Nashville.
The Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee, Nashville Convention & Visitors Corp, Music Community Foundation, the office of Mayor Freddie O’Connell, and the Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce have all joined together to make Dolly Day a citywide celebration. Mayor O’Connell is expected to formally proclaim September 25, 2026, as Dolly Day in Nashville.
The city is not treating it like a traditional memorial.
Instead, people are being encouraged to celebrate Dolly by doing the kinds of things she valued during her life.
Residents and visitors can wear pink, support charities, perform random acts of kindness, listen to Dolly’s music, and help organizations serving children and families. Local businesses are being encouraged to participate with Dolly-inspired specials and charitable giving.
Music will still be at the center of the day.
At 5 p.m., participating venues around Nashville are expected to play “9 to 5.” Buildings will glow pink, Dolly-themed posters will appear across the city, and commemorative buttons, stickers, and bookmarks will be distributed at visitor centers while supplies last.
Then, at 9:25 p.m., downtown Nashville is scheduled to light up with fireworks.
Even the time carries the same tribute.
9:25.
9/25.
“9 to 5.”
There is something especially appropriate about using that song as the centerpiece of the celebration.
When Dolly released “9 to 5” in 1980, it became one of the defining songs of her career. It was catchy and funny, but underneath the bright melody was a song about ordinary working people trying to get through long days, unfair workplaces, and lives that often demanded more from them than they received in return.
Decades later, those three numbers have become shorthand for Dolly herself.
Now Nashville is turning them into an annual act of remembrance.
Friends in Low Places has already said it plans to make its Dolly Day celebration an annual tradition, meaning Brooks and Yearwood’s tribute is designed to continue long after the first September 25 has passed.
The wider movement is growing beyond Nashville as well.
The Dollywood Foundation has announced “Give Like Dolly Day” for September 25, encouraging people around the world to support local Imagination Library programs and other efforts that improve children’s lives.
That makes the date something more than a clever reference to a famous song.
It is becoming a way of turning Dolly’s legacy into action.
For decades, fans celebrated Dolly by buying records, attending concerts, visiting Dollywood, quoting her jokes, and singing her songs.
Now they are being asked to celebrate her another way.
Give a book.
Help a child.
Support a neighbor.
Do something kind.
That may be why Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood’s tribute feels so appropriate.
They could have honored Dolly with another performance.
Instead, they chose to support the cause closest to her heart.
And Nashville followed their lead.
On September 25, Music City will not simply remember Dolly Parton.
It will try to act a little more like her.