American flags in a field

Trip Planning

Visit These 2024 Memorial Day Events

Travel by RV to visit these 2024 Memorial Day campground celebrations that honor our servicemen and women.

Memorial Day honors the men and women who lost their lives while serving in the U.S. Armed Forces. “Originally known as ‘Decoration Day’, it originated in the years following the Civil War and became an official federal holiday in 1971,” according to History.org.

Campgrounds across the country do their part to celebrate Memorial Day with red, white, and blue bicycle and golf cart parades and, in some cases, patriotic campsite decorating contests. Many campgrounds also organize a variety of fun family activities, competitive events, and entertainment, from talent shows to live music and fireworks displays. Here’s a sampling of the activities campgrounds across the U.S. have planned for Memorial Day weekend:

Gem Mining Grandparents at Jellystone in Canyon Lake, Texas
Gem Mining Grandparents at Jellystone in Canyon Lake, Texas 

 

  • San Diego Metro KOA Resort in Chula Vista: This campground will celebrate Memorial Day weekend with games of gaga ball, Lego building, a scavenger hunt, a flashlight lollipop hunt, a family water balloon toss, a family magic show, a DJ pool party, live music, and a movie under the stars.

  • Trinity Lake KOA Holiday in Trinity Center: This campground will host a barbecue potluck on the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend. The park will provide the meats while campground guests are invited to bring side dishes to share.

Wolf's Den Family Campground in East Haddam: This park will celebrating Memorial Day weekend with crafts, family games, food trucks, high stakes bingo, and live entertainment, including a magician.

River Falls at the Gorge in Lakemont: Memorial Day weekend activities at this campground include kids crafts and a tubing contest to see who can make it to the finish line in first, second and third places. There will also be a golf cart parade and a talent show with first, second and third place winners.

Richmond KOA Holiday in Richmond: This park celebrates Memorial Day weekend with arts and crafts, candy bar bingo, a bike parade, hayrides, live entertainment, games, including a cornhole tournament, a movie night, and a sky lantern ceremony.

M Jacobs Family Multigeneration Photo at Jellystone Park in Fremont, Indiana.jpg
Multigenerational photo of the M Jacobs family at the Jellystone Park in Fremont, IN

Louisville South KOA Holiday in Shepherdsville: Activities for Memorial Day weekend at this park include crafts, a decorated bicycle parade, a game show, a foam party, an ice cream social, a luau with shaved ice, a movie night, and a community bonfire.

Hidden Oaks Campground in Hammond: This campground will have a swamp pop music festival over Memorial Day weekend with several bands performing. There will also be several food and craft vendors as well as both silent and live auctions to raise money for children in need.

  • Camp Bell Campground in Campbell: Memorial Day weekend activities at this part include swimming, crafts, a pool party with a DJ, live entertainment, a corn hole tournament, an ice cream social and fireworks.
     
  • Houghton / Letchworth KOA Holiday in Houghton: This park will celebrate Memorial Day weekend with holiday crafts, outdoor games, a fishing derby, a flashlight candy hunt, and live rock n roll and country music.
     
  • Jellystone Park Camp-Resort in Endicott: This campground celebrates Memorial Day weekend with a “Kids Carnival Weekend.” Activities include carnival games, complete with popcorn and cotton candy. Memorial Day weekend also marks the beginning of this campground’s summer water activities, including the “wet ’n wild hayride” and the giant slippery slide down the hill behind the Ranger Station, the opening of “Splash Town,” as well as the park’s lake for boating and swimming. Guests are also encouraged to bring their red, white, and blue decorations for a bike and golf cart parade around the lake.

Pigeon Forge / Gatlinburg KOA Holiday in Pigeon Forge: This campground celebrates Memorial Day weekend with a special cookout on Saturday night. Other activities include crafts, including ceramic painting and tie dye souvenirs; bingo, train rides, a movie night, and a duck race to raise money for Care Camps Foundation, a national non-profit organization that funds medically supervised pediatric oncology camps across the U.S. and Canada.

Bear Run Campground in Portersville: Memorial Day weekend activities include field games, live music, a DJ, and the Jungle Terry Animal Show.

Bear Lake / Marina Side Holiday KOA in Garden City: Memorial Day weekend activities at this campground include face painting, train rides, a campsite decorating contest, bike decorating for a bike parade, ceramic painting and tie die.

  • Champions Riverside Resort in Galesville: This campground invites guests to decorate their golf cart for the red, white and blue golf cart parade. Guests are also encouraged to bring sweet treats for the park’s Memorial Day dessert cookoff. Other activities include basket raffles, bingo and the official opening of the park’s beach, weather permitting.

  • Door County KOA in Brussels: Memorial Day weekend activities at this campground include train rides, adult bingo, crafts, a golf cart parade, poolside festivities, an ice cream social, live music, a flashlight candy hunt, and s’mores by the campfire.
Jeff Crider

Author

Jeff Crider, President and CEO of Crider Public Relations, has been involved in covering the campground industry for over 25 years. Jeff has worked as a freelance writer for publications such as RV Business, Motor Home Magazine, Trailer Life, Highways and other Affinity Group Inc. publications since 1995. He has also successfully pitched many of the nation's top tier media outlets, including CNN, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, USA Today, The Financial Times, Reuters, The Associated Press and National Public Radio. In addition to writing, Jeff is also a talented photographer and humanitarian.