About

Hi — I’m Josh, and I grew up in O'Fallon

Let’s get the hometown part out of the way first, because you deserve to know who’s writing to you: This Week in O'Fallon is run by Josh Tomlinson — an O'Fallon native. I grew up here: O'Fallon schools, Friday nights, the whole thing. This newsletter is a hometown project, run by one of its own.

Here’s why it exists: somewhere along the way I started keeping a list of everything happening around town — and realized the list was the problem. On any given week O'Fallon has parks & rec festivals, library clubs, OTHS performances, church and club events, school programs… spread across dozens of calendars, feeds, and flyers. Our launch census counted 23 events in a single normal week across O'Fallon and the Metro East. Almost nobody sees more than a fraction of it.

And “around town” is bigger than the city limits. O'Fallon life runs on the whole Metro East cluster — Belleville, Shiloh, Fairview Heights, Swansea, Mascoutah — so every issue carries an Around the Metro East section alongside O'Fallon’s own events, from day one. What O'Fallon never had is a resident-first weekly roundup that covers all of it in one email — so I built it.

Every Wednesday, This Week in O'Fallon rounds up the week’s top picks, family and kids events, live music and nightlife, the free stuff, the Metro East section, and the long tail of community events the big calendars miss.

Corrections, tips, and events are welcome: submit an event or write to hello@thisweekinofallon.com.