Dollywood opens its 2016 season with its annual Festival of Nations, a smorgasbord of talent from around the world gathering in the Smoky Mountains for a month of exciting shows each day from March 19 through April 18.
Each year, Dollywood reaches out across the globe for some of its finest talent, bringing a world mix of traditional sound and color, updated into stunning and often newly created performances. Food and craft-works mingle with costume, dance, song, acrobatics and funny jokes and antics from more than two dozen countries around the world.
Image courtesy of Dollywood
The Festival of Nations shows are included in the admission ticket to the theme park. Spend the day and come hungry – sample dishes from around the world: hibachi vegetables from Japan, noodles from China, crepes from France, Latin meats and tortillas, Mediterranean breads and European sweets.
This year, acts from the UK, France and Germany mix in the menu with Argentina, Ecuador, and Africa to captivate the Dollywood audiences with high-energy excitement sound and vision, performing daily at several venues in the park – including in the street, so watch where you’re walking!
Two headline acts are back by acclaim from previous audiences: Mother Africa with its world-renowned show featuring acrobatics and both modern and traditional song and dance, and Los Pampas Gauchos, returning with traditional folk dancing from Argentina, spiced lavishly with its upbeat comedy and gripping showmanship. And with both acts, of course, lots of costumes!
The multi-cultural beat goes on with authentic Celtic music from Nova Scotia, Inca music from the Andes and Gypsy song and dance from Eastern Europe. French musician David Charrier engages his audiences on the street with never-before heard sounds and rare instruments
The UK Ukulele Orchestra presents musical genius in a hip compilation of world music mixed with some fine British humor, while German troupe Zebra takes its act to the streets of Dollywood – on stilts!
The amazing talent at work in each and every show is breathtaking, creating instant memories forever. All of the performances are immediately accessible and entertaining to western audiences, showing that “world class” means just that.
Click here for a more detailed look at the lineup for the 2016 Festival of Nations.
Dollywood puts on a class act with everything it does. Nowhere is this more obvious than in the world of music – hardly surprising considering the lady who helms the park is superstar country legend Dolly Parton.
Musicians love to play at Dollywood, and the fun is infectious at every show. Of all the awards given to this highly acclaimed theme park – and they are many, placing it in the top handful of parks in the nation – Dollywood is first in the world for Brass Ring Awards for Live Entertainment. garnering more than any theme park on the globe for live entertainment.
So the “first in the world” theme park brings the world a little closer to the deep Appalachian roots of old American culture, surrounded by the Smoky Mountains, for a month of multi-cultural celebration in the 2016, XX Annual Festival of Nations at Dollywood. Don’t miss it!
For full information check out the Festival of Nations online.
