Creating your first event

Before you start

Most of the event editor works with Site Calendar Lite alone. The Tickets meta box, recurring events, and custom fields appear only when Site Calendar Pro is active — they're called out in each section below so you know what's free and what's Pro.

If you haven't already installed both plugins, see Installing Site Calendar Lite and Pro first.

Step 1 — Open the new event editor

In your WordPress admin, go to Site Calendar → Events → Add New Event (or click the Add New Event button on the Events list page).

The editor opens in WordPress's familiar post-style layout. Anything you know about creating a regular post (titles, content, featured images, publish controls) applies here too — events are a custom post type, so the editor inherits all of WordPress's editing power.

Step 2 — Title and description

Type your event's name into the title field at the top — for example, "Summer Concert in the Park" or "Annual General Meeting 2026". The title becomes the event's URL slug, page heading, and the text that appears in calendar views.

Below the title, write a description in the main content area. This appears on the single-event page and supports the full WordPress block editor — paragraphs, images, headings, lists, quotes, and embeds all work. Keep the first paragraph short and useful; it becomes the event excerpt shown in list views and shared on social media.

Step 3 — Set the date and time

In the right-hand sidebar (or below the editor, depending on your screen size), find the Date & Time meta box.

Fill in:

• Start date (required) — when the event begins, in your site's date format
• Start time — leave blank for all-day events
• End date — for multi-day events. Leave blank for same-day events.
• End time — when the event finishes. Leave blank for events that don't have a defined end.
• All-day event — tick this for events that run the entire day. Hides time fields and displays "All day" in calendar views.
• Timezone — defaults to your site's timezone. Change only if this specific event runs in a different zone (rare).

For most events, just Start date and Start time are enough. End fields are useful for multi-day conferences, weekend festivals, or events with a fixed finish time displayed publicly.

Step 4 — Add a venue (optional)

The Venue meta box lets you link the event to a location. Venues are a separate custom post type — each venue has its own page with address, map, and link to upcoming events at that venue.

Two options:

• Select an existing venue from the dropdown — useful when you run repeat events at the same location
• Add a new venue by clicking the "+ Add new" link, filling in name and address, then saving — the new venue becomes available for future events too

If you have Pro and have enabled the per-venue map toggle, the single-event page automatically embeds a Google map and a "Get directions" link to the venue's address. No API key required — Site Calendar uses Google's public embed.

Skip the Venue box for online events or events where the location isn't publicly disclosed in advance.

Step 5 — Add an organizer (optional)

The Organizer meta box works the same way as Venue. Each organizer is a separate post type with a name, optional email, optional phone, and a list of upcoming events they're running.

Useful for sites where multiple groups host events on the same calendar — community centres, churches with multiple ministries, sports clubs with multiple teams. The Organizer's name appears on the single-event page with a link to their archive of past and upcoming events.

Pro supports multiple organizers per event — hold Ctrl or Cmd while clicking organizer names to select more than one. Lite supports a single organizer.

Step 6 — Categorise the event

Categories help visitors filter the calendar. Pick one or more from the Categories meta box, or click "+ Add new category" to create one (for example: Music, Workshop, Family, Community).

Site Calendar uses category colours throughout the UI:

• In the Month view, each event's title is prefixed with a small coloured dot matching its primary category
• In the List view, if the event has no featured image, the fallback tile uses the category colour and icon
• On filter pills (Pro only), each category appears with its own colour for quick visual scanning

You can adjust the colour of any category by going to Site Calendar → Events → Categories and editing the category — there's a colour picker for each one.

Step 7 — Add a featured image

The Featured image meta box (right sidebar) is the standard WordPress feature, but for Site Calendar it's especially important. The featured image shows up in:

• The List view (large 280 × 170 image on the right of each row)
• The Day view (200 × 130 image on the right of each row)
• The Photo view (gallery tile)
• The single-event page (header image)
• Social media previews when the event is shared

Use a horizontal landscape image, ideally 1200 × 800 pixels. Square images and vertical images both crop awkwardly in the List and Day views. If you don't have a custom photo, free stock photo sites like Unsplash and Pexels have excellent licence-free options for community events.

Events without a featured image still look intentional — Site Calendar's PCAL_Thumb helper renders a category-coloured icon tile as a fallback. But a real photo dramatically improves click-through rates on calendar views.

Step 8 — Add tickets (Pro only)

If Site Calendar Pro is active, scroll down to the Tickets meta box below the main editor.

Each row defines one ticket type. Fields:

• Ticket name — what visitors see (e.g. "General Admission", "Member", "VIP", "Free RSVP")
• Description — optional helper text shown under the ticket name
• Price — in your configured currency. Set to 0 for free RSVP tickets, or leave blank to skip the row
• Capacity — total tickets available across all orders. Set to 0 for unlimited.
• Max per order — limits how many a single visitor can buy in one purchase (useful for in-demand events to prevent hoarding)
• Sort — display order on the front-end (lower numbers appear first)

To offer multiple ticket types, click Add another ticket type and fill in another row. Common patterns:

• Single free RSVP: one row, price 0, capacity matching the venue size
• Adult + child pricing: two rows — Adult £15 and Child £5
• Early bird + standard: two rows with different prices and capacities
• Member + non-member: two rows where members get a discount

Step 9 — Recurring events (Pro only)

For events that repeat (weekly classes, monthly meetings, annual festivals), look for the Repeats meta box.

Tick "This event repeats" and the recurrence controls appear:

• Frequency — daily, weekly, monthly, yearly
• Interval — every N days/weeks/months/years (e.g. "every 2 weeks")
• By day of week (weekly only) — pick which weekdays the event runs
• End condition — repeat until a specific date, or for a specific number of occurrences
• Skip dates — exclude specific occurrences (bank holidays, school closures)

For a deeper walkthrough including overriding individual occurrences, see the dedicated Recurring events guide.

Step 10 — Event Options (Pro only)

The Event Options meta box has two visibility toggles that customise how the event appears across calendar views:

• Sticky in month view — pins this event to the top of its day cell, so it appears first when multiple events share the same date. Useful for headline events you don't want lost in a long list.
• Hide from listings — removes the event from the Month, List, Week, Day, and Photo views, but the single-event page still works at its direct URL. Useful for private events shared only via direct link.

Both options default to off. Most events don't need either.

Step 11 — Publish

When everything looks right, click Publish in the top-right of the editor (or schedule it for a future date if you want it to go live later).

After publishing, you can preview the event in two places:

1. The single-event page at yoursite.com/event/your-event-title/ — click "View Event" at the top of the editor
2. The calendar page where you've embedded the [pro_calendar] shortcode — your new event appears in the Month grid on the correct date

If you've added tickets, visitors will see a Register form on the single-event page where they can fill in name, email, and select ticket type. For free RSVP events the form processes immediately; for paid tickets the visitor is redirected to Stripe's secure checkout.

Step 12 — Verify the front-end

Open your calendar page in an incognito window (so you see what the public sees, not the admin view). Confirm:

1. The event appears on the correct date in the Month view
2. The event's title is the colour of its primary category
3. Clicking the title opens the single-event page
4. The featured image displays correctly in the List, Day, and Photo views
5. If you've added tickets, the Register form appears and is interactive
6. The event appears in the ICS feed at yoursite.com/events/feed/ics/ — subscribers receive it in their calendar apps

Troubleshooting

"My event isn't showing on the calendar"

Three things to check. First, confirm the event's status is Published, not Draft or Scheduled (Site Calendar → Events list). Second, confirm the event's start date is within the date range the calendar is showing — switch to a different month if needed. Third, if you have category filters active on the calendar page, make sure your event's category is included in the visible filter set.

"The featured image isn't appearing"

Hard-refresh the front-end page (Ctrl/Cmd + Shift + R) — image-related cache can be sticky. If still missing, check the image was actually set: edit the event, scroll to Featured Image meta box, and confirm the thumbnail is showing. If you see "Set featured image" instead, the image wasn't saved properly — re-upload and click Set Featured Image again.

"My recurring event only created one occurrence"

The recurrence rule needs to be saved with at least one valid recurrence value. Common omissions: forgetting to tick "This event repeats", leaving the end date blank with no occurrence count, or selecting "Weekly" without picking which day(s) of the week. Edit the event, verify all recurrence fields are populated, and Update.

"Tickets aren't showing on the front-end"

Three checks. First, confirm the ticket row has a non-blank Price (use 0 for free, not blank — blank rows are skipped). Second, confirm the event is Published. Third, in an incognito window, open the event's single page — the Register form appears below the main event card. If still missing, see the dedicated Stripe troubleshooting section.

"The event's URL slug isn't what I expected"

WordPress auto-generates the URL slug from the event title. To change it, click the Permalink area below the title field while editing the event, edit the slug, and Update. Existing visitors who bookmark the old URL will hit a 404 unless you set up a redirect.

"My event has tickets configured but no Register / RSVP form appears on the front-end"

This usually happens when the event's single page is rendered through a page builder (Elementor, Blocksy Page Builder, Bricks, etc.) using a custom layout rather than the default single-event template. Site Calendar Pro auto-injects the Register form below the main event content area on the default single-event template — custom layouts have to include it explicitly.

Three things to check, in order:

1. Verify the event uses the default single-event template. Edit the event, look at the right-hand sidebar for a "Template" selector under Page Attributes or your theme's template options. The default option (often labelled "Default" or "Single Event") includes the auto-injected form. If a custom template is selected, switch back to default and reload the front-end.
2. If you must use a custom layout, add the RSVP form shortcode manually wherever you want it to appear: [pro_calendar_rsvp event_id="123"] — replace 123 with the event's post ID. You can find the post ID in the URL of the event editor (e.g. post=2854 means the ID is 2854).
3. Confirm at least one ticket row has a price and a capacity. Rows where both Price and Capacity are blank are treated as placeholder rows and skipped. Use 0 for free tickets and 0 for unlimited capacity — don't leave the field empty.

If the form is still missing after all three checks, the theme may be filtering the_content in a way that strips the auto-injected output. Add the shortcode manually as in step 2 above.

What's next

• Recurring events — daily, weekly, monthly, yearly patterns with skip dates and overrides
• Setting up Stripe payments — required for paid tickets
• CSV bulk import — when you have dozens of events to add at once
• Match your brand colours — make the calendar visually consistent with your site