A New Orleans Carnival group built entirely around Dolly Parton is trying to organize a second-line parade for September 5, but first it needs the city's blessing. The Krewe of Dolly has applied for a parade permit and is now waiting on City Hall to sign off before it can lead members and the public through the streets in tribute to the country icon, who died Tuesday.
Founding president Annie Wentz said the group is devastated by Parton's death, according to NOLA.com. The krewe is hoping to gather members to grieve Parton's death while also celebrating her legacy, and organizers picked September 5 deliberately — it falls in the spirit of Parton's hit song “9 to 5,” a date the krewe already treats as significant since it doubles as the single day each year when it opens membership registration to the public at 10 a.m., per the Krewe of Dolly's own event materials. If the city approves the permit in time, the public will be welcome to join the procession.
A Second-Line Send-Off With Deep Local Precedent
New Orleans has done this before for departed music legends. The city gave David Bowie a second-line parade in 2016, the same year Prince was honored with one, and Michael Jackson received a similar tribute in 2009. When Bowie died in January 2016, Arcade Fire and the Preservation Hall Jazz Band led a memorial second line through the French Quarter that drew thousands of costumed fans and shut down city streets, processing from Preservation Hall to One Eyed Jack's, according to OffBeat Magazine.
The tradition itself dates back to the 19th century, born out of African American Social Aid and Pleasure Clubs, where a “first line” of club leaders and a brass band leads while a “second line” of the public dances and follows behind, twirling parasols and waving handkerchiefs, as Nomado Travel explains. It's the city's signature way of honoring the dead in the street rather than behind closed doors, and the Krewe of Dolly's planned parade would include bands providing music along the route, the same way it has since organizers debuted the group in 2020.
Waiting on City Hall Before the Music Can Start
Any street parade or second line in New Orleans requires a formal permit, a police escort, and municipal fees under City Ordinance #17271 MCS, with applications due at least 15 days ahead of the event and processed through the city's One Stop App in coordination with the NOPD. That timeline puts real pressure on the Krewe of Dolly's plans, since the krewe still awaits city hall approval to proceed and the article reporting the parade plans says it will be updated once the city confirms details. Whether New Orleans grants final approval and locks in a police escort in time for the September 5 date remains an open question.
The krewe has spent five years building goodwill in the streets that could help its case. Since its 2020 debut, it began appearing regularly in Carnival and other seasonal parades starting in 2022, marching with the Krewe of Okeanos down Magazine Street, performing in the Manning Family Children's Christmas Parade in the French Quarter last December, and taking part in the third-annual Gretna Italian-Irish Parade in March 2025. It also marched in the French Quarter Easter Parade in April 2025, skipping only one year because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Members costume as Dolly Parton herself, decked out in platinum wigs and glittering gowns, and the group has grown to roughly 700 members.
Parton's Own Louisiana Roots Run Deep
Parton's connection to Louisiana predates the krewe by decades. She recorded her very first single, “Puppy Love,” at age 13 in 1959 at Goldband Records in Lake Charles, taking a 30-hour bus ride from Tennessee to make it happen, according to WWL-TV. She rode as an official guest in the Krewe of Endymion's Mardi Gras parade in 1988 and headlined the post-parade Extravaganza inside the Superdome before nearly 20,000 people, and she later lived temporarily in Natchitoches in 1989 while filming her role as Truvy Jones in “Steel Magnolias.” She also played major shows at the House of Blues in 2002 and the Smoothie King Center in 2016.
Back on Oak Street in January, the krewe marked Parton's 80th birthday with a costume party where visitors like Lizzie Holzer waited with her dog Lucy for a costume contest that Megan O'Cain also joined in on. Wentz has said Parton would want the krewe to keep sharing her joy, a sentiment now folded into the group's grief.
Beyond the Parade: A Statewide Literacy Push
The Krewe of Dolly is more than a marching club; it's the official local partner for Dolly Parton's Imagination Library in Orleans Parish, an international program that mails free books to children. The krewe delivers those books to more than 15,000 children across every ZIP code in the parish, with registered kids from birth through age five receiving up to 60 free titles at home, according to the Krewe of Dolly. The group has raised more than $300,000 for the Imagination Library to date.
That fundraising now stretches further than it used to. In September 2025, Louisiana expanded the Imagination Library statewide and established a 50% state funding match for local partners like the krewe, meaning donations raised at krewe events go twice as far. A single $35 donation fully funds 12 months of book deliveries for one registered child, with proceeds going toward printing and shipping through the Dollywood Foundation.
-4.webp?w=160&h=400&fit=crop&crop=edges)
