How does my event get into Happening now?

Happening now is the live view: events already underway or about to start, shown with the distance from whoever's looking. It's free placement, and plenty of organizers never realize they're eligible.

How events get there

Automatically. There's nothing to apply for and nothing to switch on. Any published, visible event appears once its start time arrives, and drops off when its end time passes.

Which means your times decide everything

This is the whole article. Happening now runs on the start and end times in your listing, so if those are wrong, your placement is wrong.

Set the end time to when the event actually finishes, not a rough guess. An event that ends at 11pm but is listed as ending at 1am sits in the live view for two hours after the room has emptied, and the people who turn up find a locked door. An event listed as ending at 9pm while it's still going disappears from the one place people are looking for something to do right now.

Running past midnight? Make sure the end date rolls over. This is the most common mistake, and it takes your event out of the live view at exactly the hour it matters.

Doors versus start time

Use your actual start time, the point at which someone arriving would find something happening. If doors are at 7 and the first act is at 9, starting the listing at 7 is right, since people can get in from 7.

Private events don't appear

Private events are reachable only by direct link and never show in listings, including Happening now. That's the trade for keeping them unlisted.

Location affects who sees you

Happening now shows distance, so events surface to people nearby. A venue address that resolves properly on the map is what makes that work. If you dropped a pin instead of picking the official address, check the pin is actually on the building.

Hiding your exact address is fine and doesn't remove you from the live view, but adding a general area helps people judge whether you're worth the trip.

Community and category still apply

Someone browsing Happening now with a community filter set only sees events matching it. Same rules as everywhere else: accurate categories and an honest community focus put you in front of people who'll actually come.

What you can't do

There's no paid placement in Happening now and no way to pin an event there. It's purely a function of your times, your location, and what the person is filtering by.

Updated on: 24/08/2026