A pub in Barnet is holding a Dolly Parton tribute night this evening, with live music from 8pm, Dolly classics and country hits through the night, and a Best Dressed Competition offering prizes for what the poster calls the dolliest Dollys.
The billing is simple. Dolly Night, a tribute to Dolly Parton, 1946 to 2026.
It is a small event in a north London suburb, and that is rather the point of it. Since Parton’s death, the tributes have come at every possible scale, and the Barnet one sits at the end of a line that runs all the way to the Royal Albert Hall.
Two days ago, the Last Night of the Proms closed the 2026 season with To Dolly, With Love, an orchestral medley arranged by Fiona Brice and performed by the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Chorus with the BBC Singers. Sheridan Smith sang 9 to 5. Beverley Knight took I Will Always Love You. Ward Thomas performed Jolene. It went out live on BBC Radio 3 and across BBC One and Two.
In Nashville, the Grand Ole Opry gave over an entire performance to her music. Kathy Mattea sang Jolene, Ketch Secor and Molly Tuttle did Just Someone I Used to Know, Channing Wilson took My Tennessee Mountain Home, and Parton’s own niece Jada Star played The Orchard. Clips of her past Opry appearances ran on the screens through the evening, and the whole cast came together at the end for 9 to 5, with a surprise appearance from Jelly Roll.
Her estate, meanwhile, has confirmed DOLLYFEST: The Celebration of a Lifetime, two-day festivals in Nashville and London on consecutive weekends during 2027. The estate has stated plainly that no other public memorials are planned and that these events take the place of one. Dates, venues and lineups have not been announced.
Which leaves the interim to be filled by nights like this one. No orchestra, no broadcast, no ticketing platform, just a room, a band and a competition for the best wig.
Parton’s connection to British audiences went back decades. She toured Europe in 2007 with An Evening with Dolly Parton, playing Wembley Arena among other dates, and her Glastonbury set in 2014 drew a crowd estimated at 150,000, one of the largest in that festival’s history. She told reporters beforehand that she had waited her entire life for the chance, and wrote a song about the mud especially for it.
Doors and venue details for tonight’s Barnet event are being handled locally rather than through a ticketing site, so anyone planning to go should check the organiser’s own listing.
Music starts at eight.