Dolly Days Festival in Ringgold

RINGGOLD, Ga. (WDEF) – Downtown Ringgold had their third annual “Dolly Days” festival this Saturday afternoon. The event shuts down the streets, shops for food vendors, and a live band dedicated towards Dolly Parton.

“We celebrate dolly in Downtown Ringgold if you want to know why because she got married here in May, so her wedding anniversary is actually at the end of May, but we celebrate every Mother’s Day weekend and so we bring a lot of fun family and food down to Downtown Ringgold to celebrate all things Dolly,” said President of the Ringgold Downtown Partners.

The town celebrates Dolly Parton because of the unique connection between her and the city of Ringgold. But the state of Georgia has different marriage laws compared to Tennessee.

“Back in the day, there was a little more restrictions on when you can have same day marriages. So, you had to file for your marriage license and had to do a blood test. So, Georgia was actually one that let you have same day marriage license so her and her husband drove across the state line and got married here in Georgia,” said Cross.

While this event is dedicated towards Dolly, the activities are what really bring the people in to experience the Dolly Days festival.

“This is our second year doing the ‘Dolly Dash’ so last year we offered just a 5k, this year we had a 10k, a 5k, and a one-mile fun-run-walk. This year we had over 1500 registered runners; the number might have actually reached 1700 today,” said Cross.