Dolly Parton draws biggest crowd at UKs Glastonbury

(MENAFN- Khaleej Times) Over 100000 people are believed to have seen parton perform hit songs such as 9 to 5 jolene and coat of many colours her publicists said in a statement after the show

when rock meets country: dolly parton teamed up with richie sambora of bon jovi fame for part of her setCountry music star dolly parton drew the biggest crowd of britain’s glastonbury music festival on sunday regaling the dusty crowd with hits while dressed in a white diamante suit.Over 100000 people are believed to have seen parton perform hit songs such as 9 to 5 jolene and coat of many colours her publicists said in a statement after the show.Parton told the crowd it was an “honour and a thrill” to perform at the festival.“i’ve been waiting a lifetime for this and of course we want all of you to have the best time” she said.The crowds chanted parton’s name and clapped and danced as she performed with some fans dressed up as the glamourous musician in tribute.All walkways leading to the pyramid stage where parton performed were full and some festival-goers complained they could not see the diminutive star.Backstage parton was given an award to recognise her selling 100 million albums over a career that has spanned five decades.Parton’s much-anticipated performance marked the final day of the festival where heavy metal band metallica played on saturday.The 68-year old star performed a song about mud that she wrote for the five-day festival which is notorious for its ground turning to deep sludge when it rains.“i thought i had to write a song about the glastonbury mud even though the sun’s shining today” parton told a press conference before her performance.The star said she felt at home at the festival — which is held on worthy farm in the somerset countryside — because of her upbringing in rural tennessee.“i’m just a country girl and now i feel like a rock star” she said.Before the set parton told reporters she had to cut the length of her show to meet the festival timetable and decided to focus on her more upbeat songs.“i thought well i can’t do a bunch of sad slow songs because we don’t want to bring everybody down that bad so there are two or three songs that they have to hear like maybe coat of many colors and a few things that are a part of my whole life and my background” the singer said.“but we’ve tried to do a set where we can kind of keep it moving pretty good.”The 68-year-old said she has no plans to stop touring singing and writing.“i hope to never retire and i’m up there now and i enjoy every bit of it” she said. “i wake up every day with new dreams so i feel like i’m just starting out.”Sunday’s performances also included kasabian the black keys and yoko ono and the plastic ono band.