As we celebrate Dolly Parton’s 80th birthday, the Make-Out Room will wig out with the Dolly Parton Birthday Bash, featuring a Dolly look-alike contest, a Dolly vinyl dance party, and more, in a benefit for Dolly’s Imagination Library.
Country music legend and our greatest living national treasure Dolly Parton turns 80 years old on Monday, so naturally, there will be celebrations across the US all weekend. Dolly herself just dropped a birthday treat for us all, a new version of her 1977 hit single "Light of a Clear Blue Morning" (seen below), featuring Miley Cyrus, Lainey Wilson, Queen Latifah and Reba McEntire. The most VIP of all the Dolly birthday parties will be Saturday night at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, Tennessee, but Dolly will not be there because of her current health issues.
But the most San Francisco of all the Dolly birthday parties will be the Dolly Parton Birthday Bash, this Sunday night at 8 pm at the Make-Out Room. Pour yourself a Double D cup of ambition and head on down to the Make-Out Room for Dolly look-alike contests, Dolly-aoke, raffles with Dolly-themed prizes, and an all-Dolly vinyl dance party with DJ Doll Parts, aka Angela Vincent, the Dolly Parton enthusiast who organized this party.
“Anyone who loves Dolly needs to come out to this event,” Vincent tells SFist. “Seeing a room full of Dollys is a whole lot of fun.”
“Dolly turns 80 January 19th, but on the evening before, Sunday January 18th, we're going to have a birthday celebration for her at the Make-Out Room starting at 8pm,” she explains. “I'm going to be spinning vinyl and hosting a Dolly-aoke so everyone gets a chance to be a Dolly! Or a Jolene, or a Whitney, Emmylou, Linda, Porter, Freddy Fender, Cher, or any other talent she's worked with.”
“There will be a look-a-like contest with prizes,” Vincent adds. “So beyond some Dollys with wigs and rhinestones, I expect we may see some Kenny Rogers or Burt Reynolds in the audience.”
Vincent’s Dolly Parton Birthday Bash series started as annual drag shows in Austin, Texas, but has shantayed and sashayed its way to San Francisco. “I've done this party for five years in Austin with bands and a drag show, and it was huge,” she tells us. “Dolly even sent an autographed, bejeweled guitar to our drag star Brigitte thanking her for keeping drag alive in Texas.”
The show is asking a $5 suggested donation, but it’s all a benefit for the Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library, which has now gifted a staggering 300 million free books to pre-kindergarten kids worldwide. Or rather, it’s a benefit for the new San Francisco chapter of Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library, which just started up this past September, and is generously giving out free books to any San Francisco kid age five or under.
“It's a non-profit, so help from the community is vital,” Vincent explains. “$25 gets a child books for a whole year. So I'm hoping to raise $2500 on Sunday, enough for 100 kids, through suggested donations of give-what-you-can, and a raffle with Dolly prizes. If you can't make it to the event, you can still donate directly to the SF DEC and show some love for Dolly that way.”
On Dolly’s 80th birthday, we reflect not only on her music, but also the fact that she has given millions of dollars to flood victims, established the Dolly Parton Bald Eagle Reserve at her Dollywood theme park in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, and she even partially funded the development of the COVID-19 vaccine. Heck, Dolly was even instrumental in convincing Taco Bell to bring back the Mexican Pizza.
“Dolly is kind of the neutralizer of the United States,” Dolly Parton Birthday Bash organizer Angela Vincent tells SFist. “She's the one thing everyone can agree upon. No matter what your opinions are politically, religious, or otherwise.”
The Dolly Parton Birthday Bash is Sunday, January 18 at the Make-Out Room (3225 22nd Street, at Bartlett Street), 8 pm - Close. $5 suggested donation
Related: Now the SF Symphony Is Doing a Dolly Parton Show (Just Without Dolly Parton Present) [SFist]
Image: Madison Hudson
