Automated Event Discovery for Hawaii with AI Scraping
How we built a self-updating events calendar that scrapes 13 sources, enriches listings with AI, and runs autonomously — replacing manual curation entirely.
The Challenge
Hawaii has a vibrant events scene — concerts, food festivals, cultural celebrations, outdoor adventures — but no single source that aggregates them all. Visitors and locals rely on scattered Facebook groups, venue websites, and word of mouth.
Existing solutions like Eventbrite only capture ticketed events. The majority of Hawaii's events — free beach cleanups, farmers markets, community lu'aus, surf competitions — live on dozens of individual websites with no API and no standardized format.
The goal was to build a comprehensive, always-current events calendar that: - Automatically discovers events from 13+ sources - Handles duplicate detection across sources - Enriches listings with images (most source sites have none) - Requires zero manual curation after setup - Monetizes through ticketing, affiliate links, and premium features
The Solution
Claude built the entire platform — backend, frontend, scrapers, and automation:
13-Source Scraper Network Each source required a custom scraper because none share a common format: - Ticketmaster API: structured JSON, paginated, category-mapped - Eventbrite API: OAuth-authenticated, with venue resolution - Alaska.org / Alaska Events: HTML scraping with Cheerio, date parsing across multiple formats - Venue-specific scrapers: Alaska PAC, JAHC, Fairbanks Concert Association — each with unique DOM structures
Claude wrote every scraper, handling the edge cases: relative dates ("next Saturday"), inconsistent timezones, missing images, and HTML entities in titles.
AI Image Enrichment Most event sources don't include images. Claude built an enrichment pipeline that: 1. Searches for relevant images based on event title, venue, and category 2. Validates image quality and relevance 3. Achieves 99% image coverage (up from ~30% from raw scraper data)
Automated Operations - Scrapers run on a 30-minute cron cycle - Auto-expire removes past events - Duplicate detection collapses recurring shows (same title + venue) with "+N dates" badges - Health monitoring with dashboard alerts when sources return zero events
Monetization Stack - Stripe payments (live mode) for premium features - Amazon Associates affiliate links — category-aware (concerts get speaker recommendations, outdoor events get sunscreen and coolers) - Ticketing system at 2% + $0.99 per ticket (vs Eventbrite's 13.8%) - Newsletter digest with Resend integration
The Results
AlohaCalendar launched as a fully autonomous events platform:
- 13 active scrapers discovering events 24/7 with zero manual intervention
- 250+ approved events with 99% image coverage
- Recurring event deduplication — clean listings instead of 50 entries for the same weekly show
- Full monetization: Stripe live, affiliate links generating clicks, ticketing ready for event organizers
- Newsletter system: automated weekly digest to subscribers
- Cloned to Alaska: the entire platform was forked as LastFrontierEvents.com with Alaska-specific scrapers and theming, deployed in a single session
The same architecture was replicated for a second market (Alaska) in one day, proving the platform is a repeatable template for any regional events calendar.
Claude's Role
Claude built the entire stack: database schema, 13 scrapers, image enrichment pipeline, Stripe integration, newsletter system, admin dashboard, and frontend. It also cloned the platform to a second market (Alaska) in a single session. Zero external developers were involved.
Tech Stack
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