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Austin Events Data: events.json

Overview

events.json contains 60 curated upcoming Austin events for May 2 through June 1, 2026. The file powers the dynamic events layer for the Austin Things To Do v2 app.

Sourcing Approach

Events were gathered by fetching live pages from four target sources and supplementing with well-known recurring Austin events and venues.

Source Results

Source Status Events Captured Notes
do512.com Blocked (HTTP 403) 0 direct Supplemented with known Austin recurring events
eventbrite.com Success ~45 events across music, food, arts, outdoor categories Best source; browsed /events/, /music/, /food-and-drink/, /arts/, /outdoors/ category pages
austinchronicle.com/events Redirects to calendar.austinchronicle.com which returns 403 0 direct Supplemented
timeout.com/austin Partial 0 dateable events Page is a guide/directory hub, not a dated event calendar; lists article links only

Supplementation

Because do512 and Austin Chronicle are the two best Austin-specific event databases and both blocked scraping, approximately 20 events in this file are "well-known supplemental" entries. These are:

  • Recurring weekly/monthly events that reliably happen (First Thursdays on SoCo, Mueller Farmers Market, White Horse two-step nights, bat watching, Barton Creek hikes)
  • Confirmed standing programming at major Austin venues (Stubb's, ACL Live, Continental Club, Red River Cultural District crawl)
  • Seasonal outdoor experiences that are active in May (Barton Springs Pool, Lady Bird Lake kayak, McKinney Falls)
  • Museum and cultural programming (Blanton Community Day, Thinkery Science Saturday)

Supplemental events use "source": "supplemental" in the JSON and carry canonical venue URLs rather than specific ticket URLs.

Eventbrite Yield

Eventbrite provided the most usable structured data. Categories fetched: - /d/tx--austin/events/ (general): 10 events - /d/tx--austin/music/: 23 events - /d/tx--austin/food-and-drink/: 7 events - /d/tx--austin/arts/: 17 events - /d/tx--austin/outdoors/: 9 events

Many Eventbrite listings were de-duplicated or excluded if they fell outside the May 2 through June 1 window or had no usable date (e.g., "Today" relative dates without a concrete date were anchored to May 2-3).

Schema

Each event object:

{
  "id": "evt_NNN",
  "title": "string",
  "date_start": "ISO 8601 datetime",
  "date_end": "ISO 8601 datetime",
  "venue_name": "string",
  "address": "string",
  "lat": float,
  "lng": float,
  "neighborhood": "string (Austin neighborhood label)",
  "category": "music | food | art | nightlife | outdoor | family | other",
  "price_tier": "free | $ | $$ | $$$",
  "source": "do512 | eventbrite | chronicle | timeout | supplemental",
  "source_url": "string (direct event URL or venue URL for supplemental)",
  "image_url": "string (empty if not scraped)",
  "blurb": "string (short description)"
}

Geocoding

Venues were geocoded to approximate lat/lng using Austin neighborhood anchor coordinates. No live geocoding API was called. Accuracy is neighborhood-level (within ~0.5 miles). Known anchor points used:

  • Downtown: 30.2672, -97.7431
  • East Austin: 30.2627, -97.7201
  • South Austin / South Congress: 30.2494, -97.7492
  • 6th Street / Entertainment District: 30.2685, -97.7428
  • Red River Cultural District: 30.2700, -97.7347
  • Rainey Street: 30.2607, -97.7383
  • North Loop / North Lamar: 30.3091, -97.7212
  • Mueller: 30.2997, -97.7009
  • Zilker Park area: 30.2669, -97.7718
  • The Domain: 30.4029, -97.7256

Distribution Summary

By Source

  • eventbrite: 40 events
  • supplemental: 20 events

By Category

  • music: 17
  • art: 14
  • outdoor: 9
  • food: 8
  • family: 5
  • nightlife: 5
  • other: 2

By Price Tier

  • free: 20
  • $: 19
  • $$: 16
  • $$$: 5

Date Distribution

  • May 2-8: 13 events
  • May 9-15: 14 events
  • May 16-22: 13 events
  • May 23-31: 18 events
  • June 1+: 2 events (early June recurring)

How to Update

  1. Eventbrite: Re-fetch /d/tx--austin/ category pages. Eventbrite allows scraping and returns structured HTML. Update window to the new target month.

  2. do512: do512 blocks server-side fetches with 403. Options to resolve: use a browser-based scrape via Playwright (do512 is JavaScript-rendered), or use their RSS feed if available at do512.com/events.rss.

  3. Austin Chronicle: Same issue as do512. calendar.austinchronicle.com requires a real browser. Playwright would work.

  4. Timeout Austin: The timeout.com/austin page is a curated guide directory, not a dated events calendar. It is not a useful source for dated event data. Skip in future runs.

  5. Re-geocoding: If you need address-level precision, run the address list through the Google Maps Geocoding API or Nominatim (OSM free geocoder).

Known Limitations

  • Image URLs are populated with curated Unsplash photos matched by venue name and category (added post-scrape). Eventbrite does not expose event image URLs on listing pages; original scrape yielded empty strings.
  • Prices for Eventbrite events are approximated into tiers (free/$/$$/$$$ ) since most listings showed "Check ticket price" rather than a dollar amount. The one exception is the Mother's Day Tea Party at $134.84, which is clearly $$$.
  • Recurring events (White Horse, Speakeasy, Open Canopy) have been given one specific date within the window rather than listing every occurrence.
  • do512 and Austin Chronicle are the most authoritative Austin event sources; their blocking limits data freshness. Consider a monthly manual re-scrape using Playwright for those two sources.
  • Some Eventbrite listings used relative dates ("Today", "Tomorrow") which were anchored to May 2-3, 2026 based on the scrape date.