u/GuestUsed6309

Spent the last couple months trying to solve a personal problem — I kept missing events I actually wanted to go to because I was checking Eventbrite, Ticketmaster, the Metro Times calendar, and a half dozen venue sites separately and still missing things. So I started pulling every event listing I could find across the area into one place. After 6 weeks of running this, a few things have genuinely surprised me:

1. There are way more free events than I realized. Like 100+ per week, year-round. The Riverfront, Campus Martius, every suburban downtown's summer concert series, the DSO's Civic Concerts at Orchestra Hall, library programming across Wayne / Oakland / Macomb. The "Detroit is expensive" thing is real for arena shows and sports but the free programming runs deep.

2. The suburbs have way more going on than I expected. Royal Oak and Ferndale obviously, but Hazel Park, Madison Heights, Mt. Clemens, Wyandotte — all running 30+ events a month that nobody outside their immediate area hears about. Farmers markets, food truck rally's, free music events...

3. Detroit Metro Times' event listings are actually comprehensive, but somewhat hard to navigate. Half the stuff worth seeing is buried 4 pages deep.

4. Ticketmaster's Detroit coverage is uneven. They have all the Olympia venues (Fox, Comerica, Ford Field, LCA) and Pine Knob. But they miss a lot of Freedom Hill bookings, smaller club shows at Magic Stick / Crofoot, and basically anything that uses Etix or AXS instead. If you only check Ticketmaster you're missing maybe a third of what's happening.

5. The comedy scene is bigger than I realized. Mark Ridley's in Royal Oak, Planet Ant in Hamtramck, the comedy nights at Magic Stick / Old Miami — there's a stand-up show somewhere most nights of the week.

6. Jazz is more active than the wider music conversation suggests. Cliff Bell's books real touring acts, Aretha Franklin Amphitheatre runs strong programming, and the Detroit International Jazz Festival's satellite shows extend beyond Labor Day weekend.

7. Eastern Market is more than Saturday. The Tuesday market June–October, Sunday Streets, Flower Day. Most people I know only know about Saturday.

That's what's stood out so far. I'm curious — what events do people here actually go to that wouldn't show up on any official calendar? Neighborhood VFW or dive-bar music nights, specific venue communities, word-of-mouth-only stuff. What's the off-the-grid Detroit scene I'm still missing?

Some events around town:

🎶 Three Days Grace - Alienation Tour today at 7PM

⚾️ Tigers vs Rangers Saturday at 7:15PM

❤️ Charity Hockey Game in Livonia Saturday at 1PM

🎨 Hamilton at Fisher theater today at 8PM

👨‍👩‍👧‍👦The Reptarium: Bringing the Zoo to SHPL! Saturday at 10PM

🎂 Michigan Cake Wars at Villa Penna today at 5PM

And many more.... check out the website to find something near you

TownBuzz.app

Hey everyone — I live in Madison Heights, I moved here about 6 years ago and kept running into the same frustration: trying to figure out what's happening this weekend meant checking Facebook groups, Eventbrite, city websites, venue pages, and still missing half the stuff going on (I guess Metro Detroit has plenty to do haha).

So I built TownBuzz (townbuzz.app) — it scans a bunch of sources and puts every event in one feed. Concerts, farmers markets, town halls, charity runs, art walks, library programs, bar trivia, all of it. You can filter by distance, category, free vs paid, etc.

Right now it covers Royal Oak, Ferndale, Birmingham, Detroit, Troy, Berkley, Southfield, and Madison Heights.

It's completely free and works in your browser — no app download needed.

I'm posting here because I genuinely want feedback from people who'd actually use something like this. What events are missing? What would make it more useful? What's annoying about it? Don't hold back.

Thanks for checking it out!