For those who won’t be spending the official kick-off to summer on a boat or at the pool, the 2023 National Memorial Day parade will be marching down Constitution Avenue a week from today—Monday, May 29—to honor men and women who have died while serving in the U.S. military. Pre-parade festivities will begin at 1 p.m., and the parade starts at 2. The route on Constitution Avenue will run from Seventh St., NW, to 17th St., NW.
Anthony Anderson, from Black-ish, and ESPN’s Joe Buck will host the television broadcast for the second year in a row. (The parade will be broadcast on ABC, CBS, NBC, and FOX.) There will be live musical performances by Colbie Caillat, Andy Grammar, and Craig Morgan at the pre-parade show. Actors Gary Sinise and Joe Mantegna will also be in attendance.
The three grand marshals of the parade are astronauts from the famous Apollo missions 50 years ago: Russell “Rusty” Schweickart (Apollo 9), Charlie Duke (Apollo 16), and Harrison “Jack” Schmitt (Apollo 17). Retired U.S. Marine and current NASA astronaut Randy “Komrade” Bresnik will join them.
Event organizers are expecting more than the typical 200,000 guests this year, as tourism rebounds.
Correction: This article has been corrected to state that Memorial Day honors those who have died while serving the military, not all who have served.
Keely recently graduated with her master’s in journalism from American University and has reported on local DC, national politics, and business. She has previously written for The Capitol Forum.
