Illinois State Fair Campground

The campground is open year round but without water at the sites from Nov 1 through March 31, but showers and restrooms remain open. Rates increase during the Illinois State Fair in August. Security monitors the fairgrounds 24\7.

This was our first stay at a fairgrounds, so I’m not sure how it compares. We were expecting basic, and that was what we found. There are different types of sites: gravel, grass or asphalt. Some were level and some not, so if you can drive through and pick your site you will probably be happier. The full hookup sites are lined up in an asphalt parking lot. Otherwise all the sites had at least 30 amp electric and water. We had a very level grass site close to the bigger/newer bathhouse - directed there by the very helpful host. There are no picnic tables or fire rings here. Our bath house was huge - a dozen or more showers - but bare bones basic. It was extremely clean but since the campground was hardly occupied that was to be expected. We can’t report on the other two bath houses, but they were smaller. This was a great stay for us because it’s convenient for visiting the Abraham Lincoln Presidential museum (not to be missed!) and other Lincoln historical sites. If you are there during the summer check out The Muni, an outdoor community theater. We also walked around the (big) fairgrounds. There is an Illinois Fire Museum (we didn’t have time to check it out) and in the summer a Thursday Farmer’s Market that we did walk through. Note that the entrance to the campground is through gate 11, which is on Sangamon Ave. west of the main gate. The rate we paid included a $5.00 senior discount. Four stars for noise due to frequent train whistles.

Typical fairground campsite. Fairgrounds themselves are really nice. We stayed on the flat concrete parking area without sewer. Nice showers. Only a few minutes from stores or whatever you need. Lincoln’s home, burial and museum close by. WiFi was okay. No problem with satellite. No laundry.

Its a nice place to park for a couple of nights and check out the city. All of the President Lincoln stuff is only a 5-10 minute drive away. Currently the bath and shower facilities are closed(covid). 90% of the sites are water and electric and there is a dump station. There are plenty of places to walk within the fairgrounds(for excersise), there is an arboretum to explore as well. THIS IS NOT A RESORT, THERE IS MUCH OF NOTHING TO DO ONSITE. That is why you are only paying $20 a night. Because of covid it is empty here, there are 300 sites and maybe 30 RV's are here currently.

Staff was extremely helpful and friendly. Just an overnight stop while on the road, and to not unhook they had me pull in parallel to the sites in the asphalt lots up front off of gate 11. Plenty of space as most of the Fair activities are closed down right now.

This was a great place to stay just for one night while in a road trip. No bells or whistles. It’s basically a parking lot. But that’s all we needed! Would definitely stay here again if in the area. Paid $20 as a veteran. Regular rate is $25.

Just stayed one night on a longer trip. Host got us checked in quickly and gave us the option to park parallel in the parking lot instead of backing in. There was a dog show going on so lots of campers. But it was still pretty quiet. Good place for an overnight stop.

Pavement or grass, you can have your choice here. With an overnight and Lincoln museum in mind the pavement better suited us. The basics are well covered.

The only thing I had a real gripe about was the noise from the freeway nearby. We had a tent and it was very noisy. The bathrooms were sufficient. There were 2 showers (one head was broken) in the women's bathroom. It had clean toilets and sinks. The staff was friendly. The site we had included water and electricity. Some of the sites were flat and some weren't. There were plenty to choose from when we visited at the end of June 2022. Overall, it wasn't a bad overnight spot for the price.

We stopped for a quick 1 night stay. The place is OK. Since we have a big rig, we opted to park on the blacktop parking area to get 50 amp power.

The power is the only issue we have with the place. We plugged in our power protector and it registered an "open ground". An open ground can cause a hot skin condition (touch your RV and get shocked). Nope, not going to have that. Our power protector did what it should, protected us and wouldn't feed power to the coach. We managed to drag our cord from our site (#21) to the empty neighboring site (#20) and things were fine. We then called the camp host to tell him of the issue and he said, "Oh, they all do that. The electrician says it's OK". What? My electrical engineer husband disagrees. He suspects the contacts in the plugs are just dirty and need to be cleaned. Someone is being negligent (I doubt it's the camp host, he's just repeating what he was told). So be aware.

If the campground office is open and the camp host is not around, call security. They will find him for you.

If you call the campground office number, there is a very good, very detailed message about when the campground is full (typically during HUGE events) and when tents are allowed. That message was appreciated.

We would stay here again, but would definitely test the power before we settled on a site.

This is a nice campground with full hookup in the middle of the state fairgrounds. The host is very friendly and gave us a golf cart ride around the fairgrounds and took us to the farmers market. Site was a bit dirty, however the state fair had just ended. The sites are all on pavement, parking lot style.