Find obscure events

This item is a featured "What made me happy today" on 43things.com. Read the longer post at: http://www.43things.com/entries/view/2782974

Posted by: spudart on Feb 15, 08 | 5:17 pm

You can also subscribe to rss feeds for searches.

Posted by: sparx on Feb 22, 08 | 12:59 pm

Thanks sparx, although their rss searches end up giving you results for ALL locations. So let's say i want to be notified when UB40 plays in Chicago. I subscribe to a search of UB40. Then the RSS feed gives me ALL their shows WORLDWIDE. Man, i don't care about all that! Be warned! You must create a custom calendar first to get JUST local listings.

Posted by: spudart on Feb 22, 08 | 1:03 pm

Not true! As long as you set your location (or change it in the rss feeds url) you should only get local stuff.

Posted by: sparx on Feb 22, 08 | 1:05 pm

Then why does a search for UB40 yield a RSS feed with a URL of: http://eventful.com/rss/events?q=ub40 I don't see a location variable in that URL.

Posted by: spudart on Feb 22, 08 | 1:10 pm

OOOH! Because it delivers a different page if there are no results. Just add the "/rss" before "/events" when you do a search.

http://eventful.com/rss/events?q=ub40&location_type=metro_id&location_id=4&l=Chicago%20metro%20area

That's the feed for Chicago for UB40 :)

Posted by: sparx on Feb 22, 08 | 1:15 pm

OH WAIT! ok, here's what's happening. If you search for something in a particular location, let's say chicago, and if there are no results, the RSS URL will come up as a generic URL with no location in it.

BUT if you search for an event in Chicago that does yield results, the RSS feed will properly show up with the location variable. e.g. A search for snowball in chicago will result in two events. And the corresponding RSS feed is:
http://eventful.com/rss/events/?q=snowball&location_type=metro_id&location_id=4&l=Chicago%20metro%20area

Posted by: spudart on Feb 22, 08 | 1:16 pm

oh haha! we just discovered it at the same time. You did it one minute before me! :-)

Posted by: spudart on Feb 22, 08 | 1:17 pm

We are BOTH smart dudes.

Posted by: spudart on Feb 22, 08 | 1:17 pm

The podcast calendar is proving to yield some interesting results. Cuz an event might mention a tie-in to some chicago podcast.

Posted by: spudart on Feb 22, 08 | 1:34 pm

I'll this one, too. I always have a hard time finding what activities to join in in my community.

Posted by: gina on Feb 22, 08 | 10:38 pm

This should be quite useful. Yahoo calendar is effective and all, but with that you'd have to fill in everything. Unlike this one, you get to choose what you put in. So, in essence, you know everything!

Posted by: Ajit on Feb 24, 08 | 7:49 am