# Helsinki Region Events: Concerts, Theatre and Free Events (`scrapme/helsinki-events`) Actor

Upcoming events in the Helsinki region (Helsinki, Espoo, Vantaa) from the City of Helsinki's open Linked Events API: dates, venue with address and coordinates, price, ticket link and keywords. Open data under CC BY 4.0.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/scrapme/helsinki-events.md
- **Developed by:** [MDBBusiness](https://apify.com/scrapme) (community)
- **Categories:** Travel, Other
- **Security:** Limited permissions
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

$1.00 / 1,000 events

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/actors/running/actors-in-store.md#pay-per-event

## What's an Apify Actor?

An Actor is a serverless cloud program that runs on the Apify platform. It has two run modes.
In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours,
and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store.
In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server.

Apify vocabulary and the platform model are defined once, in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md.

## How to integrate an Actor?

If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects.
You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready.

Do not guess an integration path. Every one of them is in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md: the Apify MCP server, Agent Skills with the Apify CLI, the JavaScript and Python clients, the REST API, and the account-free path for an agent with no human to sign in. It also carries the rule on stating cost before the first paid run.

For examples already wired to this Actor's own input schema, see the [API](#api) section below.

Each client library has reference documentation the quickstart does not restate: [JavaScript/TypeScript](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md) (`npm install apify-client`) and [Python](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md) (`pip install apify-client`).

# README

## Helsinki Region Events: Concerts, Theatre, Courses and Free Events

Get upcoming events in the Helsinki region (Helsinki, Espoo, Vantaa, Kauniainen) as one clean table: name, start and end time, venue with address and coordinates, price, ticket link, keywords and status.

The data comes from the **Linked Events API of the City of Helsinki** (`api.hel.fi/linkedevents`), the city's own open event database. The city publishes it as open data under **CC BY 4.0** for anyone to use, free of charge. This Actor only reads that API. No login, no proxies, no browser.

### What you can do with it

- Build an events calendar or "what's on" page for Helsinki, Espoo or Vantaa
- Find free events, courses or hobby groups for a target group
- Track venues and organisers' activity (how many events per venue per month)
- Feed an AI assistant or newsletter with fresh local events
- Plan tourism, marketing or retail campaigns around concerts, fairs and festivals

### Input

| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| `startDate` | First day, `YYYY-MM-DD` or `today` (default) |
| `endDate` | Last day, `YYYY-MM-DD` (empty = no end date) |
| `searchText` | Word in the event name or description, e.g. `jazz`, `konsertti`, `kids` |
| `municipality` | `helsinki`, `espoo`, `vantaa`, `kauniainen` (empty = whole region) |
| `eventType` | `General`, `Course` or `Volunteering` |
| `onlyFree` | Only events marked as free |
| `skipCancelled` | Leave out cancelled events |
| `venueContains` | Text in the venue name or street address, e.g. `Kiasma` |
| `includeSeries` | Also return the parent entry of recurring series (off by default) |
| `language` | `en` (default), `fi` or `sv`. Falls back to another language if a text is missing |
| `maxEvents` | Stop after this many events (default 200, max 20,000) |

Example:

```json
{
    "startDate": "today",
    "endDate": "2026-12-31",
    "searchText": "jazz",
    "municipality": "helsinki",
    "language": "en",
    "maxEvents": 100
}
```

### Output

One row per event. Main fields:

| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| `eventId`, `apiUrl` | Id and link to the event in the source API |
| `name`, `shortDescription` | Name and a short description (max 300 characters, e-mail addresses and phone numbers removed) |
| `startTime`, `endTime` | ISO 8601, UTC |
| `status` | `scheduled`, `cancelled`, `rescheduled`, `postponed` or `moved_online`, as published by the source |
| `eventType` | `General`, `Course` or `Volunteering` |
| `isFree`, `priceText` | Free or paid, and the price text as published |
| `ticketUrl`, `infoUrl` | Booking link and the event's own page, when published |
| `keywords` | Up to 15 topic keywords |
| `venueName`, `venueStreetAddress`, `venuePostalCode`, `venueCity`, `municipality`, `district`, `latitude`, `longitude` | Venue |
| `languages`, `minAge`, `maxAge` | When published |
| `isSeries`, `dataSource`, `lastModified`, `license` | Technical fields and the attribution text |

A run also stores `RUN_SUMMARY` in the key-value store (events saved, pages read, why it stopped).

### Good to know

- **Source and licence.** Data: City of Helsinki Linked Events, CC BY 4.0. If you republish the data, credit the source; the `license` field contains the text. Some images in the source have a more limited licence; this Actor does not return images.
- **No organiser or contact data.** The Actor leaves out organiser, provider and contact fields, and removes e-mail addresses and phone numbers from descriptions. Event names can still contain the names of artists or speakers as published by the source.
- **Long-running entries.** Permanent exhibitions and weekly hobby groups can have a start date far in the past and an end date far in the future. Use `endDate` to narrow the period.
- **Status.** The status field is passed on as the source publishes it. Some publishers use `rescheduled` as a default value, so check the event page before relying on it.
- **Region.** Only events that the Linked Events database of the Helsinki region contains. It is not a complete list of all events in Finland.
- **Polite access.** At most one request per second, the Actor honours `robots.txt` if the host publishes one (api.hel.fi publishes none today) and stops with a clear message if the API refuses or slows down.
- **Cost.** You pay for every event returned. Set `maxEvents` or "Maximum cost per run" to control cost. If the cost limit is reached, the Actor stops and says so.

# Actor input Schema

## `startDate` (type: `string`):

First day to include, as YYYY-MM-DD, or "today".

## `endDate` (type: `string`):

Last day to include, as YYYY-MM-DD. Leave empty for no end date (then use Maximum events to limit the run).

## `searchText` (type: `string`):

Only events whose name or description contains this word, e.g. jazz, theatre, kids, konsertti. Leave empty for all events.

## `municipality` (type: `string`):

Only events in this municipality, e.g. helsinki, espoo, vantaa, kauniainen. Leave empty for the whole region.

## `eventType` (type: `string`):

General = one-off events, Course = courses and hobby groups, Volunteering = volunteer work. Leave empty for all types.

## `onlyFree` (type: `boolean`):

Only events marked as free of charge.

## `skipCancelled` (type: `boolean`):

Leave out events with status cancelled.

## `venueContains` (type: `string`):

Only events where the venue name or street address contains this text, e.g. Kiasma or Mannerheimintie.

## `includeSeries` (type: `boolean`):

Also return the parent entries of recurring series (the single dates are returned anyway). Off by default to avoid duplicates.

## `language` (type: `string`):

Preferred language for names, venues and keywords. Falls back to Finnish or Swedish if the event has no text in this language.

## `maxEvents` (type: `integer`):

Stop after this many events. You pay for every event returned, so lower this to control cost.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "startDate": "today",
  "onlyFree": false,
  "skipCancelled": false,
  "includeSeries": false,
  "language": "en",
  "maxEvents": 200
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `results` (type: `string`):

No description

# API

You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup.

## JavaScript example

```javascript
import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

// Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
// Replace the '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token
const client = new ApifyClient({
    token: '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>',
});

// Prepare Actor input
const input = {
    "startDate": "today"
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("scrapme/helsinki-events").call(input);

// Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any)
console.log('Results from dataset');
console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`);
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
items.forEach((item) => {
    console.dir(item);
});

// 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs

```

## Python example

```python
from apify_client import ApifyClient

# Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
# Replace '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token.
client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")

# Prepare the Actor input
run_input = { "startDate": "today" }

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("scrapme/helsinki-events").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print(f"💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/{run.default_dataset_id}")
for item in client.dataset(run.default_dataset_id).iterate_items():
    print(item)

# 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{
  "startDate": "today"
}' |
apify call scrapme/helsinki-events --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,scrapme/helsinki-events"
        }
    }
}
```

The hosted server signs you in with OAuth on first connect, so no API token belongs in this config. Clients without OAuth support can send an `Authorization: Bearer <APIFY_API_TOKEN>` header instead, using a token from API & Integrations in Apify Console (https://console.apify.com/settings/integrations).

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/NVhiNUlPYsWHwQL7F/builds/179fuXXSXPILq9NWj/openapi.json