Wondering where to stay for Madisonville Wooden Boat Festival weekend? Fireside RV Resort, up in Ponchatoula, sits about 25 minutes from the festival grounds, and we run 165 RV sites on full hookups plus 10 furnished cabins. The 35th Annual Wooden Boat Fest lands on October 17 and 18, 2026, running 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. both days, with admission at $15 per person, per day.
The short version:
- Festival dates: October 17 and 18, 2026, at 133 Mabel Drive, Madisonville, Louisiana
- Hours: 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, and parking around town costs nothing
- Drive from our gate: roughly 18 miles, about 25 minutes, I-12 East then LA 1077 south
- Your choices here: an RV site with full hookups, a pull-through or double site, or a furnished cabin
When Is the Madisonville Wooden Boat Festival?
The 35th Annual Wooden Boat Fest takes place October 17 and 18, 2026, on the banks of the Tchefuncte River in Madisonville, Louisiana, hosted by Maritime Museum Louisiana at 133 Mabel Drive. According to the museum’s official Wooden Boat Festival page, the grounds are “open to the public from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday.”
Admission runs $15 per person, per day for festivalgoers 13 years of age and older, and kids under 13 walk in free. Parking is free too. Maritime Museum Louisiana tells Wooden Boat Festival visitors they can park anywhere around Madisonville or pull into the field on Main Street, so keep your wallet closed until the food vendors get to you.
Where to Stay for Madisonville Wooden Boat Festival
Stay at Fireside RV Resort, which sits at 42053 Highway 445 in Ponchatoula, roughly 25 minutes from the Madisonville festival grounds. Madisonville is a small river town without much overnight lodging of its own, so most festival visitors sleep somewhere nearby and drive in. Our 165 sites and 10 cabins sit under tall pines, just off I-12 at Robert, about a mile from the Exit 47 ramp.
This is the part we brag about: there’s no resort fee tacked on, no site lock charge, and nothing called a “community impact fee”. The number you book at is the number you pay. Rates shift with the season, so it’s worth pulling up our nightly rate sheet before you commit to the weekend.
How Far Is Fireside From Madisonville?
Fireside RV Resort is roughly 18 miles from Madisonville, or about a 25 minute drive, and honestly it’s about as simple as a festival drive gets. Two roads, one turn, and you’re parking.
- Leave the resort on Highway 445 and go about a mile to I-12 Exit 47 at Robert.
- Take I-12 East for roughly 10 miles to Exit 57, signed LA 1077 / Goodbee / Madisonville.
- Follow LA 1077 south about seven miles. It runs straight through the middle of Madisonville and dead ends at Lake Pontchartrain.
- The Maritime Museum and the festival grounds sit on Mabel Drive, right by the water.
Because the run is short and the route barely has any turns, plenty of our guests do the festival both days and still come back to their own bed, their own shower, and their own coffee pot each night. That beats hauling a cooler around and hunting for a hotel room an hour away.
Is There a Full Hookup RV Park Near Madisonville?
Yes. Fireside RV Resort works as a full hookup base camp near Madisonville, with 50 and 30 amp service, water and sewer at the pad, and a fire ring at every site that doubles as your BBQ pit. You get concrete roads leading in and a crushed limestone pad to park on, which means your site stays level and drains instead of going soft after an October downpour. If towing something isn’t your thing, our cabins sleep six.
Whichever you pick, you get the same run of the place. That means the lazy river, plus two pools, one where the kids are welcome and one where they aren’t. The pools and the lazy river stay open year round here, though they aren’t heated, so October is more of a dip-your-feet-in-and-decide situation than a swim day. Have a look at our RV sites or our furnished cabins and see which one fits your crew.
What Happens at the Wooden Boat Festival?
The Wooden Boat Festival is a two day riverfront celebration of classic wooden boats, food, and live music along the Tchefuncte River. Country Roads Magazine describes it as “the largest congregation of wooden boats on the Gulf Coast,” and host Maritime Museum Louisiana expects over one hundred classic boats plus hundreds of spectator boats on the water across the weekend.
The Maritime Museum Louisiana lineup for 2026 includes:
- Over 100 classic boats to walk past, with hundreds of spectator boats moored on the river
- The “Quick’n’Dirty” boat build, where teams throw a vessel together and then have to actually pilot it
- A Children’s Village with balloon animals plus pirogue and pumpkin painting
- Live entertainment across both days
- Food and drink vendors, which the festival lists among its Madisonville waterfront attractions
Aim to arrive closer to 10 a.m. than to noon if you want to see the boats without a wall of people in front of them. Morning light on that river is genuinely beautiful, and the crowd thickens as the afternoon goes on.
What Makes the Best RV Park Near Madisonville?
The best RV park near Madisonville gives you a short hop to the river, a site your rig actually fits in, and a bill without surprise line items. Space matters more than travelers expect. Cramped, tight sites are the single most common gripe about parks in this stretch of Louisiana, and it’s the thing you notice at 9 p.m. when a neighbor’s slide-out is three feet from your window.
Here’s how we measure up on that checklist:
- Room to breathe. Spacious, well spaced sites under mature pines, not a striped gravel lot.
- Level and well drained. Crushed limestone pads off concrete roads, so a fall rain doesn’t leave you parked in mud.
- WiFi that works. Free WiFi you can actually use, which is not a given out this way.
- Quiet by design. Quiet hours kick in at 10 p.m. and hold until 8 a.m. We’re a family and snowbird park, not a party park.
- Straight pricing. No resort fee gets added at checkout, and there’s no site lock charge or “community impact fee” either.
Our amenities page has the full rundown if you want to compare.
What Else Is Happening That Weekend?
Saturday, October 17, 2026 also happens to be a Halloween Spooktacular day here at Fireside, which is a nice bonus if you’ve got kids in the rig. The Spooktacular runs every October weekend with pumpkin carving, bingo, a jambalaya cook-off, a site decorating competition, hay rides, a costume contest, trick-or-treat, and live music.
So your Saturday can go like this: wooden boats on the river in the morning, back to the resort by mid-afternoon, trick-or-treating through the campground once it gets dark. Our guests go ALL out on the site decorating, and walking through it is half the fun. The resort events calendar has the current schedule.
Frequently Asked Questions
The 35th Annual Wooden Boat Fest is October 17 and 18, 2026, in Madisonville, Louisiana. The grounds are open to the public from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on both Saturday and Sunday at 133 Mabel Drive, hosted by Maritime Museum Louisiana.
Admission is $15 per person, per day for festivalgoers 13 years of age and older, and children under 13 get in free. Parking costs nothing. Maritime Museum Louisiana directs Wooden Boat Festival visitors to park anywhere around Madisonville or in the field on Main Street.
Madisonville is a small river town with very little overnight lodging, so most visitors sleep nearby and drive in. Fireside RV Resort over in Ponchatoula sits roughly 25 minutes from the Madisonville festival grounds, with 165 full hookup sites and 10 furnished cabins.
Fireside RV Resort, up Highway 445 in Ponchatoula, has 165 sites wired for 50 and 30 amp service, with water and sewer hookups, and a fire ring at each one that doubles as a BBQ pit. Pull-through, double, and triple sites are available for larger rigs.
It runs roughly 18 miles from our front gate to the Madisonville festival grounds, call it 25 minutes. Take I-12 East from Exit 47 at Robert to Exit 57, then follow LA 1077 south into Madisonville.
Yes. Fireside RV Resort takes extended stays as well as short trips, and October puts you within easy reach of Hammond, Covington, and New Orleans. Because pricing moves with the season, pull up the rates page before you book.
Ready for Festival Weekend?
The drive from our front gate to the Madisonville festival grounds is roughly 18 miles, about 25 minutes: I-12 East from Exit 47 to Exit 57, then LA 1077 south into town. October weekends move fast around here, so if you want a site or a cabin held for October 17 and 18, go ahead and lock it in. See what’s open for festival weekend, or call the front office at (985) 277-1059.
