A few years ago, a friend from grad school came to visit me in Newburyport and asked, “where’s the live music around here?” I knew there must be an easy answer. Even after the tragic sunsetting of the Grog basement, I’ve seen live music around Newburyport dozens of times, usually serendipitously when I show up for drinks and a band happens to be playing. But in the absence of a reliable and up-to-date city events calendar, I stammered something like, “let me check,” and spent the next 30 minutes browsing individual restaurant websites for their entertainment offerings.
I’ve repeated the same process for trivia nights, comedy shows, historical activities, and farmer’s markets, and fantasized about how nice it would be to have a single hub for all the goings on around town. Now that The Townie has grown as a platform for public discourse, it’s time to launch a new way to bring the community together: a comprehensive local events calendar.
Community engagement takes many forms. One, as I’ve learned these past seven months, is voicing constructive opinions – both popular and unpopular – on local issues to start a public dialogue. Another, more immediate and tangible (and less divisive than a rec center or brick sidewalks), is coming together as a community at fun events around town, meeting new people, and sharing experiences.
The Townie’s calendar will focus specifically on events in Newburyport, Amesbury, Newbury, West Newbury, Salisbury, and Rowley. While the geographic radius can be widened, the most comprehensive listings will be found locally – because who wants to drive more than 10 minutes, anyway?
Just like The Townie wouldn’t exist without your voices, I need your help to make the calendar as robust as it can be. Though the calendar will automatically populate with events, compiling data from individual venues in the local area, it won’t be perfect. If any events or venues seem to be missing, I encourage you to let me know, or even submit your own event using the “Add Event” button on the calendar (this goes directly to me for approval). If you have an event you’d like to promote, it can be featured more prominently for a fee using the “Submit Your Event” box.
Yes, I know this isn’t the only events calendar in Newburyport. But in the spirit of community engagement on which The Townie was founded, I hope to make it the most useful.
So bookmark the events calendar and let’s put the days of visiting 17 different websites to find live music in the past. And let’s start coming together as a community at some of our favorite venues around town – no matter how you voted on the rec center.
Eben Diskin
Check it out HERE.