Dollywood rival theme park sparks outrage over 'truly disgusting' comment following country icon's death at 80
A rival theme park to Dollywood has sparked outrage online over a comment which was shared to a thread memorializing Dolly Parton.
Parton's family announced the sad news of her passing at the age of 80 in a statement shared to her social media pages on Tuesday.
The singer's nephew Bryan Seaver, who had been her head of security, shared the video message that she had died, saying: "I have imagined the heaviness of this moment but haven't truly felt it until now.
"It is an honor, an honor that is mixed with absolute pride and great sadness."
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Tributes to the widely adored singer, songwriter, actress, and philanthropist began to pour in, praising Parton's music, character, wit, and her many projects supporting ordinary people, from helping finance the Moderna vaccine during the coronavirus pandemic to sending children's books to young families to encourage a love of reading in children.
Among the many tributes was one fan who took to X to share a post about Dollywood, the theme park in Tennessee.
The fan praised Parton for keeping the single-day admission price to Dollywood at $99, writing: "And she kept the prices reasonable in this economy."
However, an account belonging to another park, Hersheypark, responded underneath by writing: "Our summer tickets are $49.99."
The comment was swiftly deleted, but not before many outraged users had taken screenshots of it, with one demanding: "Are you guys going to offer an official apology for this TACTLESS post or keep on ignoring it?"
Another took to social media to slam the park as 'truly disgusting'.
Hersheypark made an initial public response after screenshots of the post began to circulate, saying that the post had been intended for another conversation and they had not seen the 'context'.
"We certainly respect your concern," they wrote. "A reply clarifying our ticket price in another conversation was posted without seeing the context of the chain, so we removed it quickly to avoid any confusion or insensitivity over intent. We absolutely apologize for the error."
Other users still criticized the park, with one writing: "This is such a big yikes….like I'm shocked,"
Hersheypark replied to this comment, saying that they 'honor our industry icons' and that this was 'absolutely not the intent'.
Following the backlash online, the park would go on to share a longer statement in which it explained and apologized for the post, as well as paying tribute to Parton.
They said that they had seen information about their pricing online which was incorrect, and had intended to respond to clarify it.
"We join the millions mourning the loss of Dolly Parton, whose generosity, talent and spirit touched so many," the park said in a statement.
"A member of our social media team noticed inaccurate pricing information about Hersheypark within a post and intended to respond directly just to that individual to correct it, not realizing the reply would appear as a response to a conversation about Dollywood. It was removed as soon as we recognized the context. We sincerely apologize for any insensitivity."
Topics: Dolly Parton, Social Media, Twitter, US News
Kit Roberts