Most weeks in July and August, if you know where to look, there is a free or nearly free thing to do in New Martinsville after 7 p.m. The trick is that no single flyer lists them all. Parks and Rec runs one calendar, ArtsLink runs another, the Wetzel County Chamber runs a third, and by mid-August they all converge on the 4-H Grounds. Here is how the season actually stacks up, and how residents chain the pieces together.
The Splash Bash Pattern
The pool at Lewis Wetzel Park is the easy answer for a weekday afternoon. Standard hours this summer are Monday through Saturday noon to 7 p.m. and Sundays 2 to 7 p.m., with general admission at $6, seniors 65 and older at $3, and veterans, military, and children two and under free.
The more interesting thing on the schedule is the Splash Bash. Three times a summer the pool stays open past dusk with music and lights on the water. This year those nights are June 19 from 8 to 10 p.m., July 10 from 7:30 to 9:30 p.m., and August 7 from 7:30 to 9:30 p.m. It is the one time each month the pool functions as an evening venue instead of a daytime one, and if you have a teenager, this is the answer to "what is there to do."
Two things worth pairing with a Splash Bash night:
- Bruce Miniature Golf is running its regular season at $4 a round, $2 for seniors, with Friday and Saturday hours until 9 p.m. Late-night mini golf nights get added later in the season.
- Paddle boats on Lewis Wetzel Pond run through September at $3 a boat. Ninety minutes before a Splash Bash is a workable slot.
What Is Actually Happening On A Wednesday
If you live here year-round, the useful question is not "what is the marquee event" but "what fills a Wednesday." A few standing answers:
- ArtsLink Thursdays at Francis Creative Arts Center. The organization sponsors entertainment every Thursday evening downtown, per Visit Wetzel County's festival page. Different act each week, so the answer to "want to grab something after?" changes with it.
- The pond walking path at Lewis Wetzel. Not an event, but the pond has bench swings, a walking loop, and seasonal fishing, and it stays usable long after the pool closes at 7.
- Kraken Records at 301 N. Main. The shop hosts listening parties and Record Store Day events through the year. Worth checking their calendar before you assume there is nothing on a Tuesday night.
- The dog park behind the Lewis Wetzel Family Center. Fenced, open, and empty enough on a weekday evening that it counts as free time for both of you.
None of that is festival-scale. That is the point. The city runs six named parks including Brooklyn Park, the Marina, the Historic Lincoln Theater, Bruce Park, Snyder Ball Fields, and Lewis Wetzel, and the trick is treating them as a rotation rather than picking one.
Independence Week Is Its Own Season
The Fourth is not a single event here. Parks and Rec is running a Patriotic Color Run/Walk on July 1 at 7 p.m. on the New Martinsville Bike Path, with sign-ups through the Parks Department at 304-455-9130. Then on July 4 there is a spruced-up Arts in the Park celebration in partnership with ArtsLink at Bruce Park, per the same Wetzel Chronicle summer announcement. If you have out-of-town family in for the weekend, that is a real two-event calendar without leaving town.
The Day Camp Window Is A Working Parent's Window
Summer Day Camp at Lewis Wetzel Park runs July 13 through 24, Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., for ages 5 to 12, with crafts, games, and swimming built in. Cost is $95 for one week for one child, $170 for both weeks, and $75 a week for each additional child. Registration forms are picked up at City Hall.
For context on the math: those two weeks bracket exactly the stretch between the July 10 Splash Bash and the run-up to the August fair. If you plan the family summer around the city's calendar rather than against it, the middle of July is the easiest stretch to hold down a full work week.
Fair Week Is A Different Animal
Then comes mid-August, and the tempo changes.
Town and Country Days runs August 10 through 15 at the Wetzel County 4-H Grounds at 1738 WV-7, per the 2026 West Virginia festival guide. It has been going for over six decades. What sets it apart from a generic county fair is the ratio: livestock and canning contests in the daytime, live bands in the evenings, and the mud bog and demolition derby drawing a real crowd out from Ohio, as the event's own promotional description on Visit Wetzel County lays out. Kandi Midcap, the event director, told WTOV9 last August that for many families this week is their vacation.
Two practical notes if you have lived here long enough that fair week has become background noise:
- The lineup is coordinated through the Town and Country Days organization, which posts the nightly schedule closer to the week. The Prince and Princess Contest, Little Miss, Pre-Teen, Miss Teen, and Queen pageants each sit on their own night, which matters if you are avoiding parking rather than attending.
- Admission has historically sat in the $8 to $9 range per adult with rides ticketed separately.
The other thing about fair week: it is the only week of the summer where Splash Bash and pool schedules take a back seat. If you have been building your family summer around the pond and the pool, mid-August is when the center of gravity shifts three miles up WV-7.
After The Fair, The River Takes Over
Locals sometimes think of summer ending with fair week. It does not. Two September dates sit on the same calendar and belong in the summer planning conversation:
- WV Country Roads Festival, September 18 to 20, in New Martinsville.
- RegattaFest, September 25 to 27, featuring APBA-sanctioned powerboat racing and speed record runs on the Ohio, per Visit Wetzel County.
If you have never actually walked down to the river during Regattafest, the boats are loud in a way that photos do not communicate. Bring the earmuffs you use for a Fourth of July fireworks show.
For the music-first crowd, the Back Home Festival is the summer's other anchor. The three-day event has been named Best Festival in West Virginia by WV Living Magazine three of the last four years, with past performers including Billy Strings, Del McCoury, and the Allman Betts Band. That is not a small credit line for a town this size.
Where To Eat Between Events
The point of any of this is that you do not want to cook after a Splash Bash or a mud bog. A few standing options, all on the north end of town or downtown:
- Baristas Cafe and Pub for coffee and a lighter meal, with vegetarian options that are rare in the area.
- Quinet's Restaurant as the town's default sit-down, family-style pick.
- Captain's Quarters at 198 N State Rte 2, open late with a buffet and steaks, which matters when you are coming off the fairgrounds at 10 p.m.
- Pasco's Pizza for the after-pool crowd. The works pizza is the value order.
- Bigfoot Hotdogs, Choo-Choo's, Amy's Candlelight, Jalapenos, and Dos Hermanos round out the rest of the rotation.
None of those need reservations for a weekday. Fair week is a different story on Friday and Saturday.
The Working Rhythm
Put it all together and the summer looks like this: pool and pond as the everyday baseline, a Splash Bash once a month as the evening anchor, ArtsLink Thursdays for a lower-key night out, Independence week as a mini-season of its own, Day Camp holding down mid-July for families, fair week as the peak, and the river festivals closing the season into fall. That is a real six-month arc if you count from the pool opening in May through the last Regattafest heat in late September.
You do not have to hit all of it. You just have to know it is there.
If you are new to town, or thinking about the kind of home that puts you within walking distance of Bruce Park or the bike path, the team at Pathway Real Estate Professionals knows which streets sit closest to which parts of the summer calendar. Reach out when you are ready to talk about it.
