Find Events

What does Find Events do?

Find Events queries multiple primary event platforms for a given city and category, returning a single normalized dataset of scheduled events. Supported platforms include Eventbrite, Meetup, Luma, Dice, Eventnoire, Posh, Prekindle, and Shotgun. The actor matches search parameters, fetches listings, and deduplicates identical events across sources.

Core Capabilities

• Unified Querying: Retrieve events across platforms with a single request, eliminating the need to configure and coordinate multiple individual crawlers.
• Data Standardization: All outputs use a single schema regardless of the source platform, including standardized ISO UTC timestamps, locations, and pricing fields.
• Event Deduplication: The system merges identical listings found on multiple platforms using title, date, city, and venue heuristics.
• Cost-Optimized Fallbacks: The actor runs cost-effective platform queries first, only invoking more expensive crawlers like Eventbrite when earlier sources do not meet the requested volume.

What data can Find Events extract?

Field	Type	Description
title	String	Event name
platform	String	Source platform (e.g. meetup, dice)
sourceUrl	String	Link to the original event page
category	String	Canonical category you searched for
startDateTimeUtc	String	Start time in UTC (ISO 8601)
localDate	String	Event date in the city's timezone
venueName / address	String	Where the event takes place
city / state / country	String	Resolved location
requestedCity / locationMatchQuality	String	Requested city and whether the event was an exact or nearby location match
priceMin / priceMax / isFree	Number / Boolean	Ticket pricing when available
imageUrl	String	Event cover image
description	String	Event description (richer with details enabled)
sourceFields	Object	The untouched original record from the source platform

Duplicates appearing on multiple platforms are merged using title, date, city, and venue.

Run Configuration

1. Enter the target location in the city field (e.g., Dallas, TX or Berlin).
2. Select a category (e.g., music, technology) and a timeWindow.
3. Specify the maxEvents limit to define the target number of results.
4. Click Start to run the actor and retrieve findings from the Dataset tab.

Cost Structure

Total run costs consist of the orchestration fee for this actor and the fees of the platform-specific crawlers executed on your behalf.

1. Orchestration Fee (Pay Per Event)

Metric	Cost
Run Start	$0.005
Event Delivered	$0.002 ($2.00 per 1,000 events)

2. Platform Crawlers (Billed Separately)

This actor triggers child runs of platform crawlers (such as Meetup, Luma, or Dice) using your Apify account resources. Platform crawlers charge their own pay-per-event fees, which typically range from $0.002 to $0.011 per event depending on the platform and whether full event details are retrieved. These appear as separate runs on your Apify usage logs.

Estimating Total Cost

Combined estimates vary based on city size, category, and the mix of active sources.

Request Size	Orchestration Fee	Platform Crawlers	Estimated Total
10 events	~$0.03	~$0.08 to $0.15	~$0.10 to $0.18
50 events	~$0.11	~$0.30 to $0.50	~$0.40 to $0.60
50 events with details	~$0.11	~$0.60 to $0.95	~$0.70 to $1.05

Cost Controls

• Budget Limit: You can set a maximum charge limit for the run. The actor automatically sizes and caps child runs to keep total spend below this limit.
• Max Events: Set maxEvents to limit the volume of processed and delivered items.
• Event Details: Setting getEventDetails to false reduces platform crawler costs by skipping detailed sub-pages, fetching only the index listing.
• Expensive Fallbacks: Setting useExpensiveFallbacks to false prevents the actor from starting Eventbrite crawls. Eventbrite requires residential proxies, adding a fixed cost of approximately $0.81 per run. By default, the actor only uses Eventbrite when other platforms cannot satisfy the requested event count.

Input

See the Input tab for the full schema. Key fields:

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
city	String	Dallas, TX	Free-form city, optionally with state or country.
category	String	all	Event category: music, nightlife, technology, business, food_drink, arts_culture, comedy, sports_fitness, wellness, community_culture, family_education.
timeWindow	String	this_month	this_week, this_month, or all.
maxEvents	Integer	50	Maximum unique events to return.
platforms	Array	all 8	Restrict which platforms to search.
getEventDetails	Boolean	false	Fetch full event pages for richer data (slower, costs more).
useExpensiveFallbacks	Boolean	true	Allow Eventbrite when other platforms don't fill the request.
childRunTimeoutSecs	Integer	auto	Max seconds to wait for any one platform.

Example input

{
  "city": "San Francisco, CA",
  "category": "music",
  "timeWindow": "this_week",
  "maxEvents": 50,
  "platforms": ["dice", "shotgun", "luma"],
  "getEventDetails": true
}

Output

Saved to the Dataset tab. Download as JSON, CSV, Excel, or HTML.

Each item includes:

• Event: title, description, category, start/end times (UTC and local), status
• Location: venue, address, city, state, country, coordinates
• Pricing: priceMin, priceMax, currency, isFree
• Provenance: platform, sourceUrl, scrapedAt, plus the raw source record in sourceFields

Sample output

{
  "id": "luma:evt_123",
  "platform": "luma",
  "sourceUrl": "https://lu.ma/ai-builders-dallas",
  "category": "technology",
  "title": "AI Builders Hackathon & Meetup",
  "description": "Join us for an exciting evening of building agentic apps.",
  "startDateTimeUtc": "2026-07-15T23:00:00.000Z",
  "localDate": "2026-07-15",
  "city": "Dallas",
  "state": "TX",
  "venueName": "Capital One Innovation Hub",
  "address": "1900 Pacific Ave, Dallas, TX 75201",
  "priceMin": 0,
  "isFree": true,
  "imageUrl": "https://images.lumacdn.com/event-cover.jpg",
  "scrapedAt": "2026-07-02T23:12:00.000Z"
}

Operational Guidelines

• Selecting Platforms: Leaving all platforms selected allows the actor to dynamically prioritize sources based on historical city and category performance.
• Freshness and Volume: Use timeWindow: "this_week" for time-sensitive listings, or all to capture long-term scheduled data.
• Details vs. Listings: Enable getEventDetails only when rich descriptions, ticket prices, or lineups are required for your database. Skipping details keeps platform crawler costs at their baseline rate.

FAQ

Legal and Compliance

Find Events extracts publicly available event listings. Check the Terms of Service for each source platform and ensure your data collection complies with applicable regulations.

Cost Variation Across Runs

Platform distribution varies by city. In smaller markets, the actor may trigger more child crawlers or use the Eventbrite fallback to fulfill the requested event limit. Setting a strict budget hard-caps the run costs.

Low Event Volume Behavior

If a city contains fewer events than the maxEvents value, the crawler terminates after exhausting all active platforms. You are billed for the $0.005 start fee and the events successfully delivered.

Support and Feedback

• Report bugs or submit feature requests through the Issues tab.
• Reference the API tab for details on running this actor programmatically.

Privacy and Data Protection Disclaimer

This crawler only extracts public event listings. It does not extract private user details such as personal email addresses, gender, or user locations. Depending on the listings, the returned datasets may contain public personal data (e.g., event host names). Users are responsible for ensuring that their data collection and storage complies with GDPR, CCPA, and other local data protection regulations. Consult legal counsel if you are uncertain about compliance requirements.