Wiki
Event sources
A living inventory of geotagged event data sources for Amsterdam and Noord-Holland, and how accessible each one is to a society-owned platform like Uitwijken.nl.
This page is concrete vendor- and API-level detail. The principles for why open data matters live in Open-data. The dated record of how this inventory was built — and how it changes — lives in Research-log.
Last reviewed: 2026-06-02
Current working priority
Until contradicted by new evidence, the platform ingests in this order:
- Amsterdam Datapunt Evenementen — public, no-auth, CC-BY 4.0, all required fields. Start here.
- Ticketmaster Discovery API — most accessible commercial source; free API key, 5k calls/day.
- Schema.org JSON-LD scraper — generic fallback for venue HTML (Melkweg, Paradiso, dezwijger, museums, many more).
- Targeted venue HTML scrapers for sites without JSON-LD.
- Curated Luma calendar polling for Amsterdam-relevant slugs — free, no API.
- Meetup / Eventbrite — only if the Pro / partner cost is ever justified.
- Skip Facebook entirely — API closed since COVID, scrapers archived 2021, ToS risk.
Rationale: maximize coverage × accessibility, avoid lock-in to gated commercial APIs, prefer sources whose licenses match a public-interest platform.
Tier 1 — Open and accessible
| Source | URL | Type | Auth | Fields | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Amsterdam Datapunt Evenementen | api.data.amsterdam.nl/v1/evenementen/evenementen | REST + WFS + MVT | None (key rolling out) | title, start/end date+time, polygon geometry, source URL | CC-BY 4.0. Gemeente Amsterdam authoritative permit data |
| data.overheid.nl | data.overheid.nl | DCAT 1.1 catalog | None | Mirrors Amsterdam + nationwide | Discoverability layer; flows to European Data Portal |
| Ticketmaster Discovery API v2 | developer.ticketmaster.com | REST | apikey query param | start/end datetime + tz, venue name+address+lat/lon+postcode, ticket URL, images, genre tags | 5,000 calls/day @ 5 req/s, 1,000-item paging cap |
| Schema.org JSON-LD on venue HTML | schema.org/Event | Embedded structured data | None | Whatever venue embeds (usually date, title, location, URL) | Extract with extruct / schema-dts. Used by Eventbrite, Ticketmaster, Meetup, many venues |
| KNVB Dataservice | api.knvbdataservice.nl | REST | Partner | Match fixtures, venues, times | Sports — Ajax + amateur clubs |
Tier 2 — Paid or gated, but workable
| Source | Type | Auth | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Luma | REST | Luma Plus subscription, calendar-scoped keys | 200 req/min per calendar / 500/min per org. No global discovery — must know calendar slugs. Practical path: maintain a list of Amsterdam-relevant calendars and poll each |
| Meetup GraphQL | GraphQL @ api.meetup.com/gql-ext | OAuth 2; new consumers require Meetup Pro since Feb 2025 | Old API keys deprecated. Major barrier for new aggregators |
| Eventbrite | REST | OAuth | Public event search was deprecated; mostly own-org scoped now. Confirm current docs before relying |
| DICE Partners | GraphQL | Bearer via MIO, partner-only | Scoped to your own ticket data, not city-wide discovery |
Tier 3 — Closed or scrape-only
| Source | Status | Fallback |
|---|---|---|
| Facebook Events | Officially closed. Meta paused new partners (COVID-era), canonical scraper archived Dec 2021 | None viable; high ToS risk |
| Melkweg | No API/RSS/iCal/wp-json. Listing exposes date, type, title, genre tags, URL; times/room/price need detail-page fetch | HTML scrape detail pages or via Songkick venue calendar |
| Paradiso | No public feed | Scrape; Songkick / Bandsintown aggregate it |
| Pakhuis de Zwijger | No feed | Scrape (check for embedded JSON-LD first) |
| Resident Advisor | No public API | Third-party scrapers — ToS risk |
| Bandsintown / Songkick | Artist-API only; no city/venue free tier | Useful for cross-reference |
Open questions
These weren't fully resolved in the 2026-06-02 scan and are worth a follow-up dive before locking the architecture:
- Uitagenda / Uit in Nederland (LantarenVenster, Cultuurpas pipeline) — partner API or open feed?
- Songkick / Bandsintown / RA paid tiers — pricing and licensing?
- Decidim instances, buurtbudget, Stadspas — any structured channel?
- Museumnacht, UvA / VU iCal calendars, warenmarkten open data — feed availability?
- Venue "no API" claims rest on absence-of-evidence — worth a manual network-tab check on each before committing to HTML scraping.
Implications for product
- Map "Events this week" layer (Open-data) can ship on Datapunt + Ticketmaster + JSON-LD alone, with no commercial dependency.
- Civic-layer events (consultations, buurtbudget, Stadspas) likely require their own ingestion path — not the same pipeline as cultural events.
- One Schema.org JSON-LD extractor can serve many venues — invest in it as shared infrastructure rather than one scraper per venue.
- No Facebook dependency — design assumes that channel stays closed.
Tags
#year/2026 #city/amsterdam #data/events