Past and upcoming events
Events leave the listings automatically when they finish. This page explains exactly where that applies, where it does not, and how to work with past events.
The rule
The event search form shows events whose end date is today or later, ordered by start date ascending.
So a finished event disappears from the list on its own, the day after it ends. Nothing has to be unpublished.
Where the rule applies
| Surface | Past events |
|---|---|
| The search form results | Excluded |
| The calendar | Included — visitors can browse previous months |
| The events archive | Included |
| Type, category and tag archives | Included |
| The event's own URL | Always reachable |
| Previous/next arrows on an event | Included |
The search form is the only surface that filters by date. That difference is worth knowing before you decide which page goes in the navigation.
Why the end date matters so much
Everything above depends on it:
- no end date — the event never leaves the upcoming list;
- an end date too late — it lingers after it has happened;
- an end date too early — it disappears while it is still running, and its registration button shows the finished label.
Set both dates on every event, and set the end date to the real end.
Keep past events published
Unpublishing a finished event is usually the wrong move:
- links from newsletters, social posts and printed material break;
- the page becomes a not-found error for anyone with the URL;
- the organization loses its public record of what it does;
- related content links break.
The plugin already removes it from the upcoming list. Leaving it published costs nothing and preserves everything.
Give finished events an exit
A past event page is a dead end unless you provide a way onward:
- enable the Go back button under Settings → POM Events → Single event, with a label and a URL pointing at the events page;
- or add an additional link labelled See upcoming events.
The go-back button is site-wide, so one configuration covers every event.
Building a "past events" page
There is no attribute for a past-only list. Two supported approaches:
Use the calendar. It contains every published event; visitors navigate to previous months.
Use an archive. The events archive and the category archives are not date-filtered, so they list past events too. Link one from your navigation as Past events if the theme renders it acceptably.
For anything more specific, a developer can build a listing from the stored date values — see Event query recipes.
Events happening right now
An event that has started but not ended is still upcoming as far as the list is concerned, because its end date has not passed. It stays visible, and its registration button still works — which is usually right for a multi-day festival and occasionally wrong for a one-hour talk.
If registration should close when an event starts rather than when it ends, close it manually with Disable signup button.
Verify
- Set an event's end date to yesterday.
- Confirm it disappears from the search form results.
- Confirm it is still reachable at its URL, with the finished button label.
- Confirm it still appears in the calendar's previous month.
- Restore the real dates.