Events data
Events data for you to use on your website, app or publication or to support market research.
We also post short pieces about events data and related topics.
Top level numbers
Within a seasonal pattern, The List has information on up to 49,000 future live events with over 600,000 future performances at one of 80,000+ venues throughout the United Kingdom. We distribute listings to over 60 sites and apps including for transport operators, media organisations, DMO’s, local councils and hotel operators. We distribute data via api, feeds and widgets. We have a guide on how to provide us listings.
Categories, tags and level of information
We divide data into top level categories: Film, Music, Days Out, Theatre, Kids, Comedy, Clubs, Visual Art, Dance, Books, Sport, Food & Drink, Talks and Lectures, LGBT and Workshops.
Each top level category has subcategories. The first five Film subcategories are Action, Adventure, Animation, Comedy, Documentary… and the first five Music subcategories are Big Band, Blues, Ceilidh, Classical and Contemporary…
Our tagging classification system ensures that other attributes (artist name, type of event etc) can be used to build visibility of data in search indexes and enable connections across categories.
The data on each event will always include event name, category, venue, date, time and description. Where available, there will also be sub categories and other relevant tags, performance space information, phone numbers, performance-specific data (such as preview nights), prices, trailers, video/audio clips and additional URLs. Each venue page features full name and address, contact information, URLs as available and geo-location data.
Sources
The primary source of our information is venues (e.g. The Nerve Centre in Derry and Salisbury Playhouse), venue box office systems (such as Enta, Spektrix and Patronbase), venue owning groups (e.g. Ambassador Theatre Group, Cineworld), promoters (e.g. DF Concerts) and festival organisers (e.g. Edinburgh Festivals via API for all Edinburgh festivals).
Other significant sources are site users (35,000 submissions annually), media and PR agencies (e.g. MediaCom), arts and cultural organisations (e.g. Hull 2017).
Our ideal input is structured data from an API or feed which we augment by processing other less robust sources. We process information covering more than 10,000 venues. In addition, we parse files from ticketing service providers & aggregators (e.g. TicketSource, London Theatre Direct) which enables us to offer users ticketing links, in most cases for the specific performance in which they are interested.
None of the feeds we receive is complete for any genre (e.g. comedy) or geography and we seek direct supply of data from any originating source.
We have built processes to automate the matching of information from multiple sources selecting the elements that add most to the record for each event. In some cases we will publish early listings with limited information, pending additional information from other feeds.
With the combination of automated loading & matching and human curation, we maintain a high quality of data and have continual activity to resolve exceptions and remove duplicates.
Quality – metrics
Our benchmark is to provide over 99% accuracy overall and to ensure that we deliver still higher accuracy for crucial elements: place, date and time.
We use validation processes to parse feeds received from event organisers to check for possible errors, create reports for our research team to check when we identify conflicting data and carefully monitor all feedback from site users concerning accuracy.
We believe we have the most accurate and complete set of UK live events data.
Clients
We provide our services to a range of bodies including newspaper and media groups, transport operators, conference organisers, government organisations, local authorities, destination marketing bodies and arts venues.
Our data is used in apps, websites, newspapers, and magazines.
Information Services – The List approach
Trust and authority in publishing events information relies on accuracy and completeness. The List has invested heavily in processing systems and our events management database.
Our listings team, led by our Content Manager, is made up of individuals with both arts genre specialism and digital expertise. Our approach is to automate sourcing of basic events data collection and apply human curation to deliver richness and quality control.
We have a dedicated software engineering team with substantial experience of handling events data. The team including designers, developers, database specialists and system administration support.
The combination of our research and technical resources allows us to offer reliable, responsive, and good-value services.
Services for conference organisers
We can supply information on what's on around the time of your conference to support a partner's programme. This can be for inclusion in your print programme or on your site. The simplest way to integrate our events information is to use our (no charge) events widget.
Bespoke research
The Research team also provide services for individual clients collecting data that The List would otherwise not collect.
As an example, for a public body which connects food and drink producers with event promoters, we supplied a data feed which includes information on catering opportunities and the audience size for a set of events.
Bespoke supplies
The List can build bespoke event feeds, and while this is often in conjunction with bespoke research, there are occasions when the requirements of an app or website make our standard feeds insufficient.
Bespoke feeds can usually be provided within in a few days and allow full control over creating, updating and publishing the events contained in the feed.
We also offer page branding on list.co.uk for web users who visit the site from one of these bespoke feeds.
We can also supply bespoke feeds that match a city or county area rather than within a radius from a single point, which is offered as standard.
Data licences – Free to Fee
We provide a number of services that enable third parties to use our data, some free, some with fees. There is a progression from free to fee.
Free services include our JavaScript widget, RSS (or iCalendar)feeds and the free tier of our API. Data gathering for a short period, such as for a festival and based on our standard offering, is also free. Ongoing data gathering is usually associated with XML data supply and has fees. Fees are involved for use of the paid level of the API and bespoke services.
Data licences – Terms of use
Terms related to the use of our data in our RSS and iCalendar feeds, API and JavaScript widgets are contained in the general terms and conditions of use of our site. There are terms related to use of our API which are provided during sign up for an API key, and for bespoke supply of Information Services, a written agreement will be put in place.
Acknowledgements and logos
Data users are required to provide a notice in a relevant page alongside a List logo, and also a canonical link to any other relevant List link location where appropriate. In addition, a copyright notice similar to © [current year] The List Ltd in a relevant location must be used.
The List will have the option to name ourselves as a supplier to you.
Events data supply formats
We supply feeds in a number of structured formats including XML (e.g. RSS) and JSON, JavaScript widgets, in human-readable CSV for small dleiveries and via an API.
Most of our feed users take data on a weekly basis but some do so daily. All feeds have a ‘last updated’ date to allow updates to be identified so as to make the load process easier and faster.
Types of event we gather - our taxonomy
| Event type | Category | Examples | Deterministic features | Possible overlap into |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Consumer | 1 | Sale at Harrods, craft fair, car boot sale, celebrity appearance | Commercial, transactional | Entertainment |
| Business and professional | 2 | AGM for BP, sessions of parliament, public lecture by Dir of Institute of Chartered Accountants | Open to public, possibly some qualification to attend, free or moderate entry price | Community |
| Community | 3 | Public Info Notices of planning meetings, blood donor locations, marches, church fetes | Of interest to narrow geographic area, or well defined community of interest | Business |
| Conference, expo | 4 | Crufts, Wedding World, Edinburgh International TV Festival | Trade show with stands, speaker sessions, sometimes significant entry cost | Consumer, business |
| Entertainment | 5 | The original and primary List categories including theatre, music, dance, visual art, sport, etc. | Consumer | |
| Education, workshops, courses and classes | 6 | Rock Choirs, Yoga classes | Led by a teacher | Activities |
| Activities, physical recreation and participatory sport | 7 | Wildlife Trust walks, London Marathon | Participatory | Education |
| Attractions | 8 | Legoland, Albert Memorial, Green Park, British Library | A range of places of interest that may be open 365×24, have daily or seasonal opening dates and times. May have timed entry tickets. | |
| Restricted (generally, not for publication) | 9 | Private views, an employee only Christmas club night, press previews and photoshoots | Invitation private views, employees only, personal events | Business and professional |
| Other | 0 | Public and local holidays, weather and news events including marches, strikes and terror incidents | Anything not covered above |
