Memorial Day Obvervancecs in the Southwest Metro
Where to gather, listen, and remember across the Southwest Metro this Memorial Day
On this 250th anniversary of our nation’s founding, and our present fight to preserve our nation, Memorial Day takes on an added and more urgent significance.
In addition to our fallen family and friends, we also honor the Revolutionary-heros who gave their lives to win our independence from a monarch.
We also honor our Union Blue soldiers who gave their lives to preserve the great American experiement in representative democracy and to end the fascism of the slave-holding south.
We also honor our GIs who gave their lives to literally defeat fascism and create the rules-based world order.
We also honor those who have given their lives since in the service of preventing World War III and defending the rights and freedoms we all enjoy and face such threat today.
Memorial Day is not an abstraction. It is a name carved into stone. It is a folded flag handed to a mother. It is a uniform hanging in a closet that nobody has worn since.
Tomorrow, our neighbors across the Southwest Metro are gathering to read those names out loud. Here is where you can stand with them.
Bloomington
The Bloomington American Legion Post 550 steps off at 9:00 a.m. on Monday, May 25, 2026, near Lyndale Avenue and Old Shakopee Road. The route runs south on Lyndale, beginning somewhere around 94th and Bryant, heading toward Bloomington Cemetery.
Map to staging area | Facebook event
Chanhassen
Cemetery honors begin at 7:45 a.m. at three sites: Leach Cemetery, Chanhassen Pioneer Cemetery, and St. Hubert’s Cemetery.
The main ceremony runs from 12:00 to 1:30 p.m. at the Al Klingelhutz Memorial Pavilion, Lake Ann Park, 1456 West 78th Street. The keynote this year is Miki Huntington, a retired U.S. Army veteran. The pavilion is covered, with lights, electrical outlets, picnic tables, and portable restrooms. The city moved the ceremony here because construction is still tearing up the usual City Center Park area.
Chaska
Morning honors start at 7:30 a.m. at the local cemeteries. The parade steps off at 10:00 a.m. from Chaska Boulevard and Pine Street and ends at Veterans Park, 619 Creek Road. The program follows at 10:15 a.m. Hosted by American Legion Post 57 and VFW 1791.
A practical note. Parking near Veterans Park will be tight. The city is asking people who can walk to park at Firemen’s Park and come over on foot. Wear shoes that can do the distance.
If it rains, the program moves to the Chaska VFW.
Map to parade start | Map to Veterans Park | Event details
Eden Prairie
11:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m., The Veterans Memorial at Purgatory Creek Park, 13001 Technology Drive.
The keynote is John Mallo. He is a longtime Eden Prairie resident and a U.S. Army veteran. He is also one of the people who helped bring this memorial into being in the first place.
The Eden Prairie Community Band will play. Local veterans will be recognized by name.
Parking at Purgatory Creek is limited. Restrooms are on site.
Excelsior
The South Lake Minnetonka Memorial Day program runs from 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. The opening program is at Excelsior Elementary School, 441 Oak Street, at 10:00 a.m. The parade steps off at 11:00 a.m. There is a gravesite ceremony at Oak Hill Cemetery, with a flyover tied to the parade and cemetery portion.
Map to the school | Event post | Chamber calendar
The Excelsior Streetcar Line Memorial Day Service runs 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Regular fares for the public. Veterans ride free with their families. The Minnesota Streetcar Museum opens the carbarn, runs the historic cars, and puts the history exhibits out.
The boarding platform is on Water Street next to the Excelsior Public Library, 337 Water Street. Two free parking lots in town, plus limited free on-street parking. One important note for families: the historic streetcars are not wheelchair accessible.
This is not a remembrance ceremony. It is a Memorial Day afternoon with kids on a streetcar and grandparents telling them what they remember. It counts.
Prior Lake
The parade starts at 9:00 a.m. from Twin Oaks Middle School, 15860 Fish Point Road SE, and heads west down 160th Street to Memorial Park / Veterans Memorial Park, 5181 Memorial Trail SE. A special dedication will be part of the program at the park.
The city and the VFW are running this one together. The detail on the program internals is thin in the public listings, so come ready for a ceremony of the customary shape: invocation, names, flag, music.
Richfield
2:00 to 3:00 p.m. at the Honoring All Veterans Memorial, 6401 Portland Avenue South. The Richfield Symphonic Band will play. There is a Table of Remembrance, a color guard, an invocation, and a T-6 Thunder flyover. New names, freshly engraved, will be unveiled on the memorial.
Bring your own chair.
Here is the detail that matters and that almost no other city in this list bothered to publish: parking and wheelchair access is at the former American Legion post parking lot at 6429 Portland Avenue. If you or someone in your family needs that access, you know where to go.
Shakopee
Cemetery honors begin at 7:30 a.m. The ceremony at Veterans Memorial Park starts at 10:00 a.m. The March to the Monument follows at 10:15 a.m. Memorial Park, 1801 County Highway 101 E.
Shakopee VFW Post 4046 and American Legion Post 2 share these duties in a yearly rotation. This year, the VFW is hosting. The post calls it “this solemn morning,” and that is exactly the right phrase for it.
The park has an open-air shelter, electricity, picnic tables, and portable restrooms.
St. Louis Park
10:45 a.m. at Wolfe Park, at the Veterans Memorial Amphitheater. The St. Louis Park Community Band is playing at that exact time and location, and a public Memorial Day ceremony is listed for the same slot, so the program almost certainly braids the two together.
The accessible public documentation on this one is thinner than it should be for a city this size. The time and place are firm. The rest, come and see for yourself.
Map | Event post | Band page
One Last Thing
You do not need to know the right thing to say at a Memorial Day ceremony. Nobody does. You stand. You take your hat off. You listen when the names are read.
Pick the one closest to your house. Bring a kid.
These ceremonies happen because veterans and their families build them, every year, with folding tables and microphones that do not always work. They happen because neighbors show up.
David
Chaska Protests
Every Friday from 3:00–4:00 p.m. at the corner of Chaska Blvd. and Chestnut Street (Highway 41) [Map]
Every Saturday from 1-2 pm at the corner of Hazeltine Boulevard and Highway 41 (Chestnut) [Map]
Chanhassen Protests
Every Saturday from 10-11 am at 7700 Market Boulevard [Map] Public parking is available behind City Hall.
Norwood Young America
Every Sunday, 11 a.m.–12 p.m. (Line up at the bike path south of Highway 212 and Faxon.)
Victoria
Every Wednesday from 4:30-5:30 pm on the corner of Highway 5 and Victoria Drive/County Rd 11.
Waconia
Every Saturday from 11:30-12:30 pm at Highway 5 and County Road 10 in front of the Starbucks and Jersey Mike’s. [Map]
SW Protectors
Every first and third Tuesday from 6:30 – 8:00 pm. It’s no cost and come and go as you like.
Please do buy something to eat or drink, though, to support our venue, which is The Bellows restaurant and it’s located at 232 Pioneer Trail in Chaska.