What's on guide

meetup.com.au / Canberra

I have lived here almost 5 years and had one night out in all that time. No social life – nothing

Recently, while reading this website I saw a post about meetup

they have a variety of interest groups from social to adventure..all sorts

Suddenly I have heaps of options and my social life is growing!!

The problem with events.act.gov.au:

Eligible events must fall into one of the following categories:

•Family friendly
•Food and Wine
•Major Events
•Exhibitions
•Festivals and Celebrations
•Markets
•Music
•Sport
•Talks and workshops
•Theatre and dance
Events listed above must be relevant to the leisure tourism market and have the best potential to attract interstate visitation.

•Conventions
•Community
Eligible community events are large scale stand alone public events specially targeting audiences or attendances from the broader Canberra community. School fetes, church fairs, fundraisers and regular club events are ineligible for listing on http://www.events.act.gov.au

I was going to say that the Brisbane City Council has a perfect example of what you are looking for in http://www.ourbrisbane.com, but some bright sparks have apparently decided to shut it down:
http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/technology/technology-news/ourbrisbane-unplugged-today-after-10-years-20110629-1gqrm.html

Thanks everyone.

Strange though isn’t it? All these magazines but not one taking up what would be a pretty good weekly selling point i.e. what’s on that week! Reckon it would also make some events more popular as you wouldn’t find out 2 hours before they’re on.

Having moved from Edinburgh, I’m certainly not disappointed by the diversity of activities/events here – more so in the summer perhaps when we seemed to have to choose from 2 or 3 things at the weekend – but a listings feature somewhere would be good.

Do you reckon there would be scope for something like that in RiotACT? It is good to have a DIY weekend guide but something that allows people to plan into the future would be better.

My favorites so far (since Sept 2011);

EPIC camping exhibition
Thai Embassy festival
Japanese light festival
Hall market
Various farmers markets
The big folk festival
Stromlo MTB enduro race

A few others maybe for next year – some kind of Ironfest sounded curious. The pumpkin festival in Chancellor (can’t miss that!)

Also heard there are a few music festivals near Canberra (or a couple of hours away) that are good.

Just wish there was some place (one place) to find them all!

Is there some way of reviewing what’s on?

For example, I went to the “Silk Road” exhibition at the NMA on the weekend, and while it was interesting and all the usual bromides, it was too dark to read the informative plaques, and the interactive video display was out of focus. Take a torch.

Welcome to Canberra! And I have to say, I agree with your statement – I’m afraid in this town unless you keep tabls on a few websites you would not have a clue.Tourism ACT does not really do a great job of circulating information. You can subscribe also to visitcanberra.com.au and events.act.gov.au

In theory, BMA. In practice, there is no single source that is even remotely adequate. A combination of this site and the Canberra Times gets you pretty far.

I would recommend our calendar (in the right hand bar) and on thursdays the DIY wotz on guide.