Waterstruck Wellness Is Adding Live Music to the Thermal Circuit This Summer

Waterstruck Wellness, a community Nordic spa in the woods along the Damariscotta River in Newcastle, Maine, is launching Sonic Sounds, a six-date ambient concert series that pairs live music with the thermal circuit. The series runs on six Sundays from June 14 through August 16, with three rotating performers: singing bowl practitioner Jamie Bifulco, indie musician Jesse Kivel, and cellist Robin Lane.

Each Sonic Sounds session runs two hours and includes full access to Waterstruck’s wood-fired cedar sauna, cold plunge, hydrotherapy pool, and outdoor rest areas. The music is designed to complement the heat-up, cool-down, rest cycle rather than compete with it.

The founders started with a sauna at home

Ashley Baldwin and Kyle Markmann opened Waterstruck in November 2024 after years in behind-the-desk careers led both of them to sauna as a burnout recovery tool. Kyle brings operations experience from wellness spaces; Ashley trained in nature-based mindfulness and meditation through Kripalu’s Mindful Outdoor Leadership program. They built their first sauna at home, started sharing it with friends, and eventually decided the community needed its own space.

The property sits on River Road, right on the Damariscotta River in midcoast Maine, between the towns of Damariscotta and Boothbay Harbor. The name Waterstruck comes from waterstruck brick, a handmade variety that originated on the Damariscotta’s shores during the local brick-making era of the late 1800s. Reclaimed bricks from that period are still scattered across the property.

Since opening, Waterstruck has been covered by the New York Times, Lonely Planet, the Boston Globe, and MyMaine. Ashley and Kyle are also graduates of the Sauna Business Accelerator run by Cedar and Stone, the Duluth, Minnesota, sauna builder.

Heat, cold, and a yurt for the rest phase

Waterstruck runs year-round on a traditional three-phase Nordic circuit: heat up, cool down, rest.

The sauna is a wood-fired cedar room that reaches up to 200 degrees Fahrenheit. A picture window overlooks the forest, and guests can ladle water on the rocks to adjust humidity. The cold side includes an immersion plunge held at 50 degrees, a cold shower, and (in winter) whatever the Maine weather provides. The hydrotherapy pool runs 98 to 100 degrees in winter and drops to 80 to 85 degrees in summer.

The rest phase is where Waterstruck invests. A yurt with a fire, outdoor decks and hammocks, tea and kombucha from the snack bar, and recovery add-ons like compression boots. Ashley and Kyle treat rest as a distinct third phase, not an afterthought. Most guests complete two to four full circuits during a two-hour session.

The facility is 18-plus for community sessions, with up to 14 guests sharing the circuit at capacity. Private bookings are available for groups that want to bring minors or have the space to themselves.

The Sonic Sounds schedule

The spa announced a six-date schedule that rotates three performers:

• June 14: Jamie Bifulco, sound meditation with singing bowls
• June 28: Jesse Kivel, indie pop with vocals and guitar
• July 12: Jamie Bifulco, sound meditation with singing bowls
• July 26: Robin Lane, cello
• August 2: Performer to be announced
• August 16: Robin Lane, cello

Reservations are available through Waterstruck’s events calendar. The spa is also running a summer promotion: five-session packs are $25 off through June 15 with the code SUMMERSAUNA.

Programming beyond the circuit in the first two years

Waterstruck opened in November 2024 and is already programming beyond the thermal circuit, as a growing number of independent US operators do: the White Mountain Sauna Haus in North Conway tied its identity to the ski calendar, KOS Sauna built a floating concept that turns location into the event, and the Aufguss playbook showed that ritual performance can be a revenue multiplier.

Ambient music suits the circuit because it works with the slow pace of heat-and-cold cycling rather than against it. Singing bowls and solo cello do not compete with the sauna for attention. For a 14-person-capacity space in a seasonal Maine market, a concert turns a Sunday session into something people book ahead.