rcmusic-free

A Python script that scrapes the Royal Conservatory of Music's website for free student recitals and community performances and generates an iCalendar (.ics) file. This allows you to easily add and stay updated with the latest free concert schedules in your favorite calendar application.

Note

The public calendar is updated every hour. For real-time updates, subscribe to the calendar and enable event change notifications in your calendar app.

Getting the Concert Calendar

You can easily subscribe to the concert calendar without running the script yourself.

How It Works

The main.py script performs the following steps:

1. Fetches HTML: It sends an HTTP GET request to the RCM's student recitals and community performances page.
2. Parses HTML: Using BeautifulSoup, it parses the HTML content and extracts the table containing the concert schedule.
3. Converts to JSON: The extracted HTML table is converted into a JSON format for easier data manipulation.
4. Generates iCalendar file: It iterates through the concert data, creating an iCalendar Event for each entry.
5. Saves the file: The script saves the generated calendar as calendars/all_concerts.ics.

Running the Script Locally

If you want to run the script yourself, follow these instructions.

Prerequisites

• Python 3.11 or higher

Setup and Execution

1. Clone the repository:

   git clone https://github.com/your-username/rcmusic-free.git
   cd rcmusic-free

2. Create and activate a virtual environment:

   # Create the virtual environment
   python -m venv venv
   
   # Activate on Windows
   .\venv\Scripts\Activate.ps1
   
   # Activate on macOS/Linux
   source venv/bin/activate

3. Install the required packages:

   pip install -r requirements.txt

4. Run the script:

   python main.py

   This will create the all_concerts.ics file inside the calendars directory. You can then import this file into any calendar application that supports the iCalendar format (e.g., Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, Outlook).

Note

An iCal file generated manually will not be updated automatically. You will need to run the script again and re-import it to your calendar app to get the latest schedule. To stay updated automatically, use the subscription links provided above.