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 into a single source and categorized to make it easier to find events you're interested in.
2. Other resources like mini-communities and annual & recurring events.
3. Follow our newsletter, delivered twice weekly to your inbox, so you can stay up to date on events without manually checking sources.
4. We host our own events to help you build community & make friends, giving that personal touch to your events platform.

❌ Cons

1. We're not a payment processor! Tickets unfortunately have to be purchased on other platforms, but we provide the quick links to places for you to buy tickets.

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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

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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

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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

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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

Victoria BC Events

Victoria, BC

Instagram Accounts

Victoria Event Centre

CHEK News

LampPost Victoria

Quadratic Sound

Capital Ballroom

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✅ 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