Every year, millions of people visit amusement parks around the world, especially during the summer vacation months. Arguably the most famous of these parks in the US would be the Disney parks. Coming in as a top contender is Dollywood in the Knoxville Tennesse Smoky Mountains. Opened in 1986 by Dolly Parton and Herschend Family Entertainment, the park covers 150 acres with more than 50 rides and attractions. Nearly 3 million people visit Dollywood a year to fulfill the park’s slogan, Love Every Moment.

One of the most anticipated events at Dollywood, and many other amusement parks, is nighttime entertainment. Guests have come to expect music, parades, dancing, and fireworks to finish up their day of fun in the parks. Not one to ever disappoint their guests, Dollywood is known for putting on a rip-roaring fun after dark show. This past year the creative team at Dollywood decided to go the extra mile to entertain their guests with their new nighttime show, called Dollywood’s Sweet Summer Nights, with the addition of a drone light show.

In a year long preparatory collaboration with Intel, Dollywood found a way to incorporate all that is representative of the park in a musical, firework, and drone light show. Sweet Summer Nights starts with a DJ playing family favorites at 8:45 PM. Along with the DJ is a troop of dancers that immerse themselves with the crowd to encourage everyone to get on their feet for some fun. Towards the end of the dance party, the DJ gets the crowd to count down from 5. When everyone shouts out 1, the fireworks show instantly begins. About a minute into the fireworks show, something begins to change in the sky.

As the smoke from the fireworks dissipates, what appears to be the famous Rock Mountian flashing fireflies scatter in the sky while the DJ plays the song Fireflies by Owl City. The fireflies swarm together, and all of a sudden you realize you are looking at drones forming into a sunburst shape. The drones go on to animate images in sync with the DJ’s music. Images like stars, interlocking hearts, an embracing couple, a giant butterfly with flapping wings, a boombox, and even a representation of Dolly Parton herself grace the sky.

After about 10 minutes, the drones form their last image, an outline of the Rocky Mountains with a sun setting over them as the DJ places Dolly Parton’s song, Everything’s Gonna Be Alright. Then the drones scatter about like fireflies once again, and a final fireworks show begins. It is a truly unique combination of music, fireworks, and drones unlike any seen before. “When we heard about drone light shows,” said Dollywood’s Visual Experience Director Cyndi McCormack, “we thought it was an incredible way to integrate music into our storytelling. And so, what a better way to put imagery into the sky in a way most people haven’t seen before, using drones.” The Sweet Summer Nights celebration is set to run through the end of July. As Cyndi McCormack went on to say, you can bet that Dollywood will continue to offer similar entertainment to please its guests in the future.

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