Dean Butler says Pa's fiddle will be played on the stage for the first time ever at the Grand Ole Opry on Friday, September 11, 2026. The performance is part of the Little House on the Prairie Cast Reunion in Nashville, turning a three-day gathering into something closer to a live archive event.
“It will be played on the stage for the first time ever at the Grand Ole Opry,” Butler said, adding that he does not think the impact for Little House fans should be underestimated because the fiddle will be heard in front of a worldwide audience that night. Matt Combs will play it, with his two daughters on stage with him.
W Nashville plans
The reunion is scheduled for September 11 through 13, 2026 at W Nashville, with a full cast night at the Grand Ole Opry in the middle of the weekend. Alison Arngrim said, “I think this is also the first time we've had a really musical extravaganza,” which fits the way this weekend has been built around the music as much as the nostalgia.
Butler also traced the fiddle’s path in plain terms: “That fiddle has been in Mansfield, Missouri since it came on a covered wagon from the Dakotas to Laura's house.” The instrument now lives at the Laura Ingalls Wilder Historic Home & Museum at Rocky Ridge Farm, where it is played publicly about once a year during Wilder Days. Bringing it to the Grand Ole Opry puts a museum piece in front of a much larger audience than the usual annual appearance.
Michael Landon’s 1976 airdate
The Opry evening is being presented as a 50th anniversary tribute, but the timing lands awkwardly against the fact that The Collection first aired on September 27, 1976. That date sits 50 years later than the tribute framing if the spotlight is on the 2026 reunion weekend, so the anniversary language depends on how the event date is counted.
Butler said Michael met Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash at a party and invited them to come on the show, a reminder that The Collection linked the series to names with their own reach. Michael Landon directed it, Johnny Cash portrayed ex-convict Caleb Hodgekiss in The Collection, and that crossover helps explain why the Nashville appearance is being treated as more than a nostalgia stop.
For attendees, the practical takeaway is simple: the fiddle moment happens on Friday, September 11, and Combs is the player to watch. The question left hanging is how the instrument will be presented and handled once it reaches The Opry stage, because the weekend has already made the leap from cast reunion to a public performance with museum weight behind it.
