Finding Events in Victoria

The Definitive Guide

Let’s face it; finding events in Victoria can be really freakin’ difficult.

That’s not to say there aren’t great events. There are. There’s tons of them, actually.

The problem is finding them.

There’s about x84387 different social media accounts to dig through, then another 17 different websites after that, and then you’ll have to reach out to your friends, great aunt, and… well, you get it.

We’re overloaded with information. So how do we find events?

Obviously, we still want to find events. Who doesn’t? They’re a great way to get off the phone, build community, make friends, make lifelong memories. All that fun stuff.

But when the process of trying to get off our phones ends up keeping us on our phones even longer, it’s pretty easy to lose motivation for the whole process. Simply put, it’s a pain in the butt.

It needs a solution.

Thankfully, Victoria residents trying to find events have a few options for sources to find local events. So, let’s get into the best sources for finding events.

1. LampPost Victoria

Look, we may be biased on this one.

Scratch that, we definitely are. But there’s exactly one source in Victoria where you can find every single event, and that’s LampPost. We gather events from every other source on this list (and many, many more) to create one singular source for all Victoria’s events. We’re focused exclusively on the Victoria market, which means we’re able to find a lot of events, such as smaller or free events, that larger platforms don’t include.

So whether your idea of a good night is quiet night with a few people doing crafts or a rambunctious concert, there’s something for everyone on LampPost. Plus, it only takes about 5 minutes to read, meaning less time required to find events and more time actually attending them.

✅ Pros

  1. Comprehensive - every single event in Victoria, gathered from all the other sources into one spot, including a calendar format.

  2. Categorized into different sections - from community events to markets, sports to outdoor events, live music to performing arts.

  3. Delivered twice weekly to your inbox so you can stay up to date on events without manually checking sources.

❌ Cons

  1. Tickets must be purchased on other platforms

Vic Posters is awesome. It’s a great local source for a wide range of events and it has an awesome interface that displays all the graphics and posters for each event, making it very dynamic and interesting to scroll through.

While it’s not a comprehensive source for events, it still does a good job of getting a lot of options on the platform. Unfortunately, there’s no way to categorize by date or event type either, so it may take some scrolling to find an event you’re interested in.

✅ Pros

  1. Sweet graphics & visuals! Vic Posters lets you see all the posters for each event

  2. Users can submit their own event posters

  3. Clean & attractive user interface

❌ Cons

  1. Non-comprehensive

  2. Events aren’t categorized, meaning you often have to scroll pretty far to find an event you’re keen on

AllEvents is a huge platform that compiles events in cities across the globe. This makes it a great source for finding the larger events around town, no matter what town you’re in.

While it does a great job of including a range of events and allowing users to sort by event category and date, it also uses web scraping technology to populate the website. Web scraping is great for automatically formatting events on to a website, but is limited on where it can source events from.

For example, events on smaller websites that don’t rate well on search engines or events that are only advertised on social media can’t be scraped, so AllEvents often ends up missing events, particularly smaller and free events.

✅ Pros

  1. Wide range of events

  2. Categorized and easy to navigate

  3. Tickets can be purchased directly on the platform

❌ Cons

  1. Non-comprehensive

  2. Not a local source and often misses out on more ‘grassroots’ events

  3. Doesn’t do a great job of posting smaller or free events

Eventbrite is one of the world’s largest event platforms for a very good reason. It has a huge range of events, you can purchase tickets directly on the platform, and it has a great user interface that makes it super easy to sort events by category and date.

It’s a great platform, but it isn’t focused on the Victoria events market and mostly lists events that users post on the platform themselves. So while it’s an awesome source for finding some of the events going on in town, it isn’t a comprehensive source of all the events.

✅ Pros

  1. Tickets can be purchased directly on the platform

  2. Categorized event navigation and clean user interface

  3. Easy for users to create their own events

❌ Cons

  1. Non-comprehensive

  2. Not a local source

  3. Doesn’t do a great job of posting smaller or free events

Do250 can be a great website to use in combination with all the above listed sources. What we like about it is the ability to sort events by date and its access to a pretty wide range of events.

However, like AllEvents, it is a larger platform that uses web scraping to find events and isn’t Victoria focused. This means that it often misses the more local events that are only advertised on social media or smaller websites. We’ve also experienced several issues with incorrect information on Do250, which means you always have to double check the information from the original source.

✅ Pros

  1. A great range of events

  2. Fantastic calendar feature that allows users to sort events by date

  3. Great at including links to original source

❌ Cons

  1. Often makes mistakes on dates, locations, and/or costs for events

  2. Non-comprehensive and non-local

  3. Tickets can’t be purchased directly through the platform

  4. Mostly targets larger events

Downtown Victoria is a great resource for a ton of different local options in Victoria’s downtown core, including great content, an awesome blog with highlights on local businesses, and an events page with calendar and date sorting to make it easy to find events going on.

While it’s a fantastic source for Victoria residents, it isn’t exclusively focused on events and also doesn’t include a ton of events outside downtown, so if you want to find events going on in the Greater Victoria region then you’ll need to pair Downtown Victoria with other event sources as well.

✅ Pros

  1. Great local source for events

  2. Tons of other resources, like highlights on downtown businesses, blogs, and grants

  3. Calendar and event categories for finding easy sorting

❌ Cons

  1. Non-comprehensive

  2. Not exclusively focused on events

7. Social Media

Almost every brand in the world is now using Instagram or Facebook to market their products and events, so it’s possible to find events while also getting your normal social media diet of aesthetic food content and influencer goodness.

There’s a few problems with using social media, however. Events can often be buried by algorithms that favour more viral content, and it takes a lot of time scrolling or checking in with individual accounts to make sure you’re not missing any events. Also, for people that want to be using less social media in their lives, this isn’t the most wholesome way to find them.

Still, there’s a few event-focused sources on Facebook & Instagram that you can use to quickly get a rough idea of what’s going on.

Facebook Pages

Instagram Accounts

✅ Pros

  1. Huge range of events - food, products, merch, you name it. This is where 90% of events can be found if you’re willing to dig.

  2. Find events in the same app that you’d be scrolling anyways

❌ Cons

  1. Non-comprehensive

  2. Takes a ton of time and even more scrolling

  3. Events are often buried by the algorithm

  4. Need to find the right accounts to follow

Victoria’s Events Community

Victoria is a great city with a ton of events to offer longtime residents and newcomers alike. And there are a ton of benefits from going to events, including building community, getting involved with local goings-on, and meeting likeminded individuals.

While finding events around town can be time consuming and often difficult, the sources we’ve included in this post are all great spots to speed up the process of finding events that you’re interested in. Each has their own benefits and problems, but will still help Victoria residents to get out of the house and into the community.