Run a community events calendar website people trust
A local what's on site is only as good as its freshest listing. Keep every event as an entry with a date, time, place, category and a contact, let organisers send events through a form, and check each one before it goes up. The work is editorial, not technical: an hour a week reviewing submissions and clearing past events keeps people coming back.
What a listing needs
Readers scan a list of events for three things: when, where and whether it's for them. Every listing should answer those without a click, and give the rest on its own page.
| Field | Notes |
|---|---|
| Title | What it is, not a pun: "Repair café" beats "Fix it Friday!" |
| Date and start time | One field each; add an end time where it matters |
| Venue and address | With step-free access noted |
| Category | A short fixed list: music, family, sport, talks, markets, volunteering |
| Price | "Free", or a price in words with its currency; a link to tickets if needed |
| Who it's for | Age range, beginners welcome, dogs allowed |
| Organiser and contact | A name and an email or website for questions |
| Description | Three or four sentences |
| Image | Optional, supplied with permission |
Categories and how people browse
Keep categories few and stable. Eight is plenty for a town; more than that and organisers pick the wrong one. Most visitors want "this weekend", so put the next seven days at the top of the home page, then the rest of the month. A page per category helps parents find family events without reading the whole list.
The submit-an-event form, reviewed first
Most of a local events calendar website's listings will come from organisers, so the submission form matters more than the design. Ask for exactly the fields above, in the same order, so a submission can be copied straight into an entry. The built-in contact form only asks for name, email and a message, so a proper submission form is a custom form tied to a site function, with up to 30 plain-text fields. Its thank-you page can say what happens next, such as "We review every event and add it within three days if it fits our listing policy".
Nothing a visitor submits appears on the site by itself. Submissions arrive in your dashboard, sealed at rest, and can be emailed to you or sent to a Slack, Discord or Telegram channel for the volunteers who moderate. You then add the events that fit as entries in the collection. That review step is what keeps out spam, duplicates and the occasional listing nobody should host.
- Write a listing policy and link to it from the form: what you list (local, open to the public), what you don't (private parties, ads for businesses, political rallies, if you so choose).
- Ask for a contact you can check if something looks wrong.
- There are no file uploads, so ask for a link to an image or a poster, and only use it if the organiser has the right to share it.
Building it as collections
In Anticode the events live in a CMS collection with typed fields, edited in the dashboard. The collection is served at /events/ for the list and /events/<slug> for each event, which gives every listing its own address to share. Describe it: "a what's on page for Hebden Bridge with an events collection, categories, a this-weekend section and a submit-an-event form". Organic (Figtree) and Swiss (Inter Tight) both keep long lists readable.
Keeping it current
- Once a week, remove or archive events that have passed. Old listings at the top make the site look abandoned, and nothing removes them for you.
- Review new submissions and add the ones that fit.
- Check a few upcoming events still stand; cancellations rarely get reported.
- Post the coming week's highlights to your newsletter or social pages with links to the listings.
Limits
- No calendar feed or "add to calendar" files. Visitors note dates themselves.
- No embedded Google Calendar or maps. Published pages can't embed them; link to a map for each venue.
- No organiser accounts. Organisers submit through the form; they can't edit their own listing later, so ask them to email changes.
- No ticket sales. Link to the organiser's own ticket page.
- No filtering as you type. Pages run no scripts; category and date pages do the browsing.
Questions people ask
Can organisers post events directly?
No. They submit through the form and you add the listing. That review step is what keeps the calendar trustworthy.
Can I list events from other websites automatically?
No. Listings are added by hand in the dashboard. Copy only the facts, write your own short description and link to the source.
How many volunteers does an events listing website need?
One person can run a small town's calendar in an hour or two a week. Share moderation once submissions grow.