What's on this weekend? Finding events, markets and things to do within 10 km

Family is visiting on Saturday. You've been meaning to find a night market that isn't full of tourists. You'd go to a gig if you knew one was on. Event listings cover the big things, weeks in advance, but most of what makes a weekend good is smaller and later than that: a kite festival in the park, free cinema on a university lawn, a food market in an old railway station that only runs this month. The people across town know about them. This article is about finding events and things to do within 10 km with CicadaChat: how to ask, how to use Hot as a weekend guide, how to post an event people will actually come to, and how to meet up once you're there.

Why the 10 km room is where you hear what's on

Events draw people from across a town. A night market by the river pulls in visitors from five districts, and a school fair draws families from all around the school. The 10 km room, Within 10 km, is a circle twenty kilometres across drawn around you, so it reaches the people who might go, and the people who know about it, in one place.

It's also sized for what you'd travel to. Most people will cross town for a festival on a Saturday afternoon. Fewer will drive an hour. The 10 km room covers the first and leaves the second to the 50 km room, which is there when you want a day trip.

Asking what's on

"Anything on this weekend?" gets answers. A question with a little detail gets better ones:

• Who it's for: "with two kids under ten", "for a first date", "for my parents, who don't like crowds".
• When: "Saturday afternoon", "Sunday evening", "anything free tonight".
• What you like: "live music", "food", "something outdoors", "anything but shopping".
• Budget, if it matters: "free or cheap".

Something like "What's on this weekend? Family is visiting with two kids under ten" tells people everything they need. In the conversation below, it got a kite festival, an open-air cinema, a food and craft market and a children's water puppet show within minutes, plus a warning that the festival would move if it rained.

A screenshot of the 10 km room after a question about what's on this weekend. Replies from 2 to 7 km away suggest a kite festival, open-air cinema, a food market and a puppet show, with reactions from people who like the ideas.

Thank people when they answer, and react to the suggestions you like. That's not just politeness: reactions are what CicadaChat uses to decide what goes into Hot.

Hot: the town's weekend guide

The flame button in the header opens Hot, the room's most-reacted messages from the past week. It keeps the room in the same place, just sorted by how many people reacted instead of by time. At the bottom it says so: Most-reacted messages from the past week. Sending a message takes you back to the latest.

A screenshot of the Hot view in the 10 km room. The kite festival, with four hearts, is at the top, followed by the open-air cinema and the puppet show.

In the 10 km room, Hot works as a listings page nobody had to write. The events that lots of people were excited about float to the top, and they stay there for a week, even after dozens of other messages have scrolled past. Open Hot on a Friday evening and you've got a pretty good idea of what the town is looking forward to. Only messages that have at least one reaction appear in it, so it's short and to the point. There's more about how it works in the Hot view: finding a room's best messages from the past week.

Posting an event

Whether you're organising something or you've just seen a poster, a good event message gives people what they need to decide in one read:

1. What it is, in a few words: "Kite festival", "Food and craft market", "Open mic night".
2. Where, with a landmark everyone knows: "in the lakeside park", "at the old railway station". Across 20 km, a street name alone isn't enough.
3. When: the day and the time, and for anything longer, until when. "Saturday from 3pm", "Friday to Sunday".
4. Who it's for and what it costs, if that's not obvious: "free", "kids welcome", "bring a mat".
5. A photo, if you have one: the poster, the stage, last year's kites. Tap the paperclip button to attach it. Photos are re-encoded on your device, which strips hidden location data.

Keep it to one message. A whole programme pasted into the room is hard to read on a phone and easy to scroll past. If people want details, they'll ask, and you can answer them one to one in a private chat by tapping their name.

Changes and cancellations

Weather and plans change. If the festival moves to Sunday because of rain, or the market closes early, say so in the room as soon as you know. The first message may already be in Hot, so a clear follow-up like "Heads up: the kite festival moves to Sunday if it rains" is what stops people turning up to an empty park.

How often to post

Once or twice about the same event is plenty: once a few days before, once on the day. Answer questions as they come. A room where one event is posted every hour quickly stops being a room people enjoy, and CicadaChat limits how fast any one person can send messages anyway. If you post too quickly, you'll see You are sending messages too quickly.

On the day: finding each other

Once you're at a big event, the 10 km room is often too wide for "where are you?". Switch to a smaller room. The 500 m room covers a festival site, a market or a stadium: everyone at the event, and not much else. The 100 m room is the right size for "we're by the food stalls".

To show someone exactly where you are, share a location in a message, from the paperclip button's Location option. CicadaChat tells you first who will see it: in the 10 km room, Everyone within 10 km will see this exact spot. In the 500 m room, it's just the people around the site. For meeting a friend, a private chat is better still: only the two of you see the spot. The help article how to share your location in a message, and who will see it covers all three.

Is it worth going right now?

Posters and listings can't tell you what an event is like at this moment, but the people there can. Before you set off, ask the room: "Anyone at the night market by the river? Is it packed?" or "Has the kite festival started, or is it still setting up?" The replies come from people who can see it, and the distance on each one, like 2.3 km away, gives you a hint about whether they're likely to be at the site or just passing on what they heard.

It works for the practical questions too: whether there's parking, whether the queue for the puppet show has started, whether it's raining on that side of town. And if you're already there, you can answer them for the next person. "Half an hour's wait at the main gate, the side gate by the car park has no queue" is the kind of message that collects 👍 reactions fast.

A weekly rhythm

People who use the 10 km room for what's on often fall into a pattern:

• Midweek: post or ask about the weekend while there's still time to plan.
• Friday evening: open Hot to see what the town is excited about.
• Saturday morning: check for changes: the weather, a new venue, "sold out".
• On the day: switch to the 500 m or 100 m room at the venue.
• Afterwards: say how it was. "The puppet show was brilliant, go early" helps next week's visitors, and a good review picks up reactions too.

Ideas for the room

Some kinds of event do especially well in a town-wide room:

• Markets: night markets, farmers' markets, flea markets and craft fairs.
• Festivals: kites, lanterns, food, music and anything with a season.
• Free culture: open-air cinema, museum free days, concerts in the park, university talks.
• Sport: fun runs, cycling events, a big match on a big screen somewhere.
• Things for children: puppet shows, library story time, school fairs and playgrounds that just opened.
• Last-minute tickets: "Two spare tickets for tonight's show, face value". Arrange the handover in a private chat, and meet somewhere public.

When a one-off becomes a regular thing

Sometimes the people you meet at an event want to do it again: the same band next month, the same run every Sunday, the same board games every Thursday. That's how clubs start. Registered accounts can add each other as friends and create a private room to plan the next one. Finding your people across town: sport, hobbies and language exchange in the 10 km room has more on turning a crowd into regulars.

Keeping it friendly

• Be honest. If you're the organiser, say so. "We're running a market at the old station this weekend" is welcome. Pretending to be a random fan isn't, and people notice.
• Don't spam. One event, posted once or twice, with answers to questions. Not the same message every hour.
• Keep it local. The room is for things within reach. A festival two hours away belongs in the 50 km room.
• Look after each other. Meet new people in public places, and tell someone where you're going.

Everything here works without an account. Open CicadaChat, allow location, tap 10 km, and ask what's on.