Sheffield blog

Where to find out about Sheffield events

With the annual influx of new student arrivals settling into Sheffield life, I thought it would be timely to round up some of the online what’s on guides that are out there.

If you open any national newspaper you’ll see plenty of inspiration for what is on in London. Although Sheffield does now get more coverage that it used to, thanks in part to the Millennium galleries, we still have to work harder to find out this information, relying more on local coverage and communities (both traditional and online) for listings.

This isn’t a massive problem, as often some of the best things happening spread more appropriately via word-of-mouth and through organic networking channels. So keep your ear to the ground and you may unearth some quirky and independent happenings around Sheffield.

For now though a good starting place is these websites (in no order):

Event Sheffield
eventsheffield.co.uk
This site is run by the council and Spin Sheffield and seems to include quite a comprehensive round-up of big events within 20 miles of the city. Organisers can submit their own event, as long as it is ‘expected to attract significant visitors from outside the region and be of national/international significance’. So no matter how good your themed house party is going to be, don’t be too disappointed if it doesn’t get accepted on this site. There is also some sort of SMS service for Sheffield events to your mobile, but at 50p per text I won’t be trying it.

Sheffield Telegraph
sheffieldtoday.net/telegraph (the ‘Listings’ link from sheffieldtelegraph.co.uk is broken)
An online version of the newspaper’s weekly listings supplement. Click a category to see upcoming events. It is functional but feels like a bit of a missed opportunity, as the addition of an advanced search (e.g. to allow you to search by date, postcode) would make it much more useful.

The Star
thestar.co.uk
The Telegraph’s sister newspaper offers a ‘What’s on’ guide on their website, although it appears to be a flat page of text with no search option. What may be more useful is keeping an eye on the Ten things to do today page, however this URL changes each day and I’m not sure where this is consistently linked to from. Your best bet is to subscribe to their Entertainment RSS feed, which includes a link to the day’s page.

Sheffield forum
sheffieldforum.co.uk
The old favourite; if you are reading this blog then the chances are you have also stumbled upon this successful and busy discussion site. It has specific sections for Evenings out and Other events – plus of course you can subscribe to RSS feeds of these sub-forums if you wish.

Sheffield nights
sheffieldnights.com
As you would expect, this site focuses on Sheffield’s nightlife. Run by a Hallam student, I think it has had a recent redesign and looks pretty useful, as long as their event database is kept up to date. There is also a Facebook group.

sheffield-tonight.co.uk
sheffield-tonight.co.uk
Avoid this unattractive site, which despite proclaiming to be ‘your 24/7 guide to the best entertainment all night, every night’, is in face very out of date and bereft of events. I looks like it is some sort of joint venture between The Star and radio2XS. Seems to me like they would be better taking it down, as it is damaging for both brands.

Twitter
twitter.com
It you are on Twitter, then obviously keep an eve out for stuff mentioned by the Sheffield people you are following. And occasionally twitter.com/sheffieldblog will mention things happening, as well as other local news.

Are there any more I have missed? It seems like there is an opportunity for some sort of properly localised Sheffield events website with an up-to-date database, proper search functionality and open policy on the events they allow on it.