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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/48895
License name: CC BY-SA 4.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

Nailing down the type of event you're looking for may help, just by defining what role you need it to play in the narrative. Do the characters need to be able to have a long conversation? Rock concert probably not an option, but a museum, art show, gallery or restaurant opening may be good. Larger cities also often have yearly events like film festivals that happen at around the same time every year, and you can ground it in the year by referencing the theme or other centrepiece of that year if necessary.

Slightly out of date guidebooks may be of help- some large cities release one every year, and your local library may have them or be able to get them on loan from another library depending on turnover. You can also change the settings on Google to show only results within a certain timeframe or before a certain date, so searching for events within the time period you're aiming for may also be helpful. Since it's a big city there will probably be listicles of fun or weird things to do in the city, and you can also search for concerts or major events in a given year in the city.

If you end up searching for something in a particular area of the city, just looking at maps or streetview to see what looks interesting may also be useful, since they're not updated constantly as far as I know. Looking through Instagram tags for the city or year may also be an option depending on what kind of timeframe you're looking at and how many tags there are.

Original score: 2