Dolly Parton To Stream Homecoming Parade on Facebook

Dolly's Homecoming Parade, Pigeon Forge's annual salute to hometown superstar Dolly Parton, regularly attracts tens of thousands of spectators, but this year's potential audience could be exponentially larger because it will be one of the first live stream feeds presented on Facebook.

Facebook launched live video streaming earlier this month, and this event will feature one of the world's most recognized personalities.

Parton will lead the parade atop a float themed for her new theater in Pigeon Forge, Dolly Parton's Lumberjack Adventure Dinner & Show, and the live stream will chronicle the entire event. Take a look at what's in store via the video below, from last year's parade.

The parade steps off at 6 p.m. on Friday, May 6 on a route that covers three miles of the famous Parkway through the heart of Pigeon Forge. The live stream will be from Parton's float and will show Parton, the crowds along the Parkway, and views of the city and the surrounding Great Smoky Mountains.

This will be the 31st presentation of Dolly's Homecoming Parade and the first time it will be streamed live on the Internet on Dolly Parton's Facebook page and Dolly Parton's Lumberjack Adventure Dinner & Show Facebook page. Streaming information is at LumberjackAdventure.com and DollyParton.com.

Every year, the parade adds a Norman Rockwell atmosphere to Pigeon Forge, a gateway city to Great Smoky Mountains National Park. It features high school marching bands, equestrian units, veterans' groups, twirlers, antique tractors and much more. There are 125 groups in the 2016 parade.

This year's high school bands are from Sevier County High School (Dolly was a member in her high school days), Pigeon Forge High School, Fyffe High School from Fyffe, Alabama, and Cheatham County Central High School from Ashland City, Tennessee.

Parton has garnered 7 Grammy Awards, 10 Country Music Association Awards, 5 Academy of Country Music Awards, 3 American Music Awards and is one of five female artists to win the Country Music Association's Entertainer of the Year Award.

Making her film debut in the 1980 hit comedy "9 to 5," Parton earned rave reviews for her performance and an Oscar nomination for writing the title tune, along with her second and third Grammy Awards. Roles in "Steel Magnolias," "Best Little Whorehouse in Texas," "Rhinestone," and "Straight Talk" followed.

Parton saw a cherished dream become a reality in 1986 with the opening of her own theme park, Dollywood, in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. In 1988, she began the Dollywood Foundation which funds Dolly Parton's Imagination Library across America and in Canada by giving every preschool child a book each month from the time he or she is born until the child reaches kindergarten. Currently 60,000,000 books are mailed to children in the US, Canada and throughout the UK.

In 1999, Parton was inducted as a member of the Country Music Hall of Fame. She has her own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and in 2004, the U.S. Library of Congress presented her with their Living Legend Award for her contribution to the cultural heritage of the United States. In December 2015, more than 15.9 million tuned into "Dolly Parton's Coat of Many Colors" and was the most-watched film on broadcast networks since May 2012.