Dolly Parton’s dinner show is dropping a word from its name in a rebranding effort that the show’s owners said was due to “changing attitudes.”
World Choice Investments, the company that operates “Dolly Parton’s Dixie Stampede,” along with country music icon Dolly Parton, announced Monday that it would drop the word “dixie” from the show’s title, renaming it “Dolly Parton’s Stampede, WCVB reports.
Parton, 71, said the change was necessary to expand the shows to a wider audience and take into account cultural changes over the years. The shows currently operate in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, and Branson, Missouri.
“Our shows currently are identified by where they are located,” Parton said in a statement. “Some examples are Smoky Mountain Adventures or Dixie Stampede. We also recognize that attitudes change and feel that by streamlining the names of our shows, it will remove any confusion or concerns about our shows and will help our efforts to expand into new cities.”
World Choice Investments CEO Jim Rule says the rebranding is part of an effort to “stay relevant in today’s changing world.”
“There is interest in several parts of the United States and internationally to host one of our unique dinner attraction shows,” Rule said. “We provide spectacular family entertainment at a great value. We continually listen to our guests and our desire to expand coupled with our desire to stay relevant in today’s changing world led us to simplify our shows’ names.”
While some think removing “dixie” was the right way to go, others see it as “caving to political correctness.”
“Well, like everybody else, I love Dolly, and I love all that she’s done for our community, which is her community, and I’m disappointed that they’re yielding to political correctness,” Knox County Tennessee Mayor Tim Burchett told knoxnews.com. “What’s next? Are we going to change the name of Dixie cups and the Dixie sugar company?”
The dinner attraction’s website already implemented the name change since the announcement, and social media pages for the attraction have also removed any mention of “dixie.”
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