Upcoming events in the USA in 2021: Leading Demand Indicators report for May 17

Published on May 16, 2021
Matthew Hicks
Director of Data Assurance

The economic recovery and the recovery of events have been underway for a couple of months now, but in May we’ve seen it really start to skyrocket as event organizers and cities prepare for a major lifting of COVID-19 restrictions across many states, which kicks off this week.

A pattern we have seen across the USA is as restrictions ease, event size and the volume of events being scheduled leaps up. Our machine learning models are always working, finding and verifying new events (and checking for changes and updates to existing events in our system). We are also running regular quality checks to ensure we’re getting every new event in some of the states set to fully reopen (with guidelines on a state-by-state level) soon such as:

  • Connecticut on May 19

  • Delaware on May 21

  • Minnesota on May 28

  • Rhode Island on May 28

  • Pennsylvania on May 30

  • Nevada on June 1

  • North Carolina on June 1

  • Virginia on June 15

  • California on June 15

  • Oregon on June 30

  • Vermont on July 4

As the economic recovery continues across the USA, demand intelligent companies are tracking large events so they can prepare for the peak days many companies will miss until they have lines out the door, are out-of-stock and have nowhere near enough staff ready to meet demand. Knowing in advance about impactful events enables our customers to make their forecasts to be real-world aware and reduce forecast error, saving millions.

Significant surge in performing arts events is good news for QSR and transport

Previous reports and especially last week’s outlined the impact of sports games, and especially Minor League Baseball, being scheduled across the USA. This week, performing arts is the major event type being scheduled.

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Performing arts events such as comedy shows and plays rarely fill stadiums like concerts, sports and festivals can. But they are significant drivers of demand for restaurants and bars around the venue, as well as transport providers

Because these events are smaller, and their attendance varies so widely, they are one of PredictHQ’s most interesting event categories for restaurants and quick service companies, as our models look after identifying and verifying events, as well as predicting the attendance of each event for you.

Major changes to the most active cities this week: Las Vegas is no longer on the list and NYC is at the very top for the first time

For the six weeks PredictHQ has been publishing these reports, Las Vegas had been the busiest city – scheduling more new events each week than any other city. This week, Las Vegas is not even in the top 25, and the extent of New York City’s event scheduling spree makes even busy cities such as Jacksonville and El Paso look quiet.

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City deep dive: Boston, Chicago, Denver, New York City, Minneapolis

In this fragmented and dynamic recovery, cities and even suburbs within each city are recovering at different rates. 

This week, we want to share more information on how five major cities are recovering, to provide some more specific insight per city. Our team would love to help you find out more about each city if you have operations there. Most of our customers are national (and international), so being able to use features such as searching for events in a radius around each store, property or hotspot location is a valuable tool.

Below are graphs of five cities across the USA. The main graph is of the number of events being booked in each city. To put this in context, we have also added an Aggregate Event Impact graph inset into each. This inset shows the combined impact of events booked on a location, factoring in predicted attendance.

Upcoming events and scheduling rates in Chicago in 2021

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Notable events coming up soon in Chicago include:

  • Cleveland Indians vs Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field on June 22 with 9,500 people expected

  • Arizona Diamondbacks vs Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field on July 25 with 24,000 people expected

  • Guns N' Roses at Wrigley Field on July 21 with 25,000 people expected

  • Millennium Art Festival  on July 16 -18  with 105,000 people expected

  • Chicago Auto Show on July 15 -19 at McCormick Place with 10,000 people expected

Upcoming events and scheduling rates in New York City in 2021

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Notable events coming up soon in New York City include:

  • Philadelphia Phillies vs New York Yankees at Yankee Stadium on July 20 with 20,000 people expected

  • Boston Red Sox vs New York Yankees at Yankee Stadium on June 4 with 13,400 people expected

  • Blackberry Smoke at The Rooftop at Pier 17 on July 27 with 2,050 people expected

  • Las Vegas Aces vs New York Liberty at Barclays Center on June 3 with 2,800 people expected

  • Dallas Wings vs New York Liberty at Barclays Center on July 5 with 3,800 people expected

Upcoming events and scheduling rates in Denver, Colorado in 2021

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Notable events coming up soon in Denver include:

  • Los Angeles Dodgers vs Colorado Rockies at Coors Field on July 17 with 25,100 people expected

  • Pittsburgh Pirates vs Colorado Rockies at Coors Field on June 28 with 21,200 people expected

  • Aaron Watson at Grizzly Rose on June 25 with 1,200 people expected

  • Sawyer Brown at Grizzly Rose on July 9 with 1,200 people expected

  • Tame Impala at Ball Arena on July 30 with 10,800 people expected

Upcoming events and scheduling rates in Minneapolis in 2021

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Notable events coming up soon in Minneapolis include:

  • Guns N' Roses at Target Field on July 16 with 25,000 people expected

  • Los Angeles Angels vs Minnesota Twins at Target Field on July 25 with up to 36,000 people expected

  • Chicago White Sox vs Minnesota Twins at Target Field on July 7 with up to 36,000 people expected

  • Stone Arch Bridge Festival from W. River Parkway near Portland Ave to N. 4th Avenue. on Jun 19 - 20 with 10,000 people expected

  • Lakefront Music Fest at Prior Lake on July 10 with 14,400 people expected

Upcoming events and scheduling rates in Boston in 2021

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Notable events coming up soon in Boston include:

  • Blackberry Smoke at Leader Bank Pavilion on July 22 with 3,200 people expected

  • New Kids on the Block at Fenway Park on July 16 with 22,300 people expected

  • Solar and Energy Storage Northeast at The Westin Boston Waterfront on June 9 - 10 with 1200 people expected

  • Cambridge Jazz Festival on July 25 with 7,200 people expected 

  • Toronto Blue Jays vs Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park on July 27 with 22,000 people expected

The recovery is only just beginning – make sure your team is ready

This report outlines the general trajectory and trends of event recovery across the United States. To make the most of events in your forecasting, you will need to use programmatic solutions given what dynamic and large datasets event data can be. 

PredictHQ is supplying our customers with impactful events across the world, both verified and standardized, from 19 categories in one API. To find out how leading companies such as Uber, Domino’s, and major hotel chains are using this data, explore our use cases

We will be releasing weekly editions of this Leading Demand Indicators report. Sign up to receive it in your inbox early each week.