• How long does it take for an event to be approved?
• How do I edit an event?
• Can I trust the information on your site, is it up-to-date?
• Do you rank the events on how good they are?
• There's a an open mic in the town centre on Wednesdays, why isn't it listed?
• How many hits do you get?

How long does it take for my revision to be approved?

I aim to approve all revisions within a couple of days, although it's often daily. If there is a period of time where I am unable to administrate the site, the next administration window will be displayed on your Dashboard, below any pending revisions.

How do I edit an event?

Remember, you edit venues on Open Mic Finder, not events. This is a subtle but important distinction. Events do not move venue on Open Mic Finder, this would be treated as the old venue stopping hosting an open mic and the new venue starting to host an open mic. The reason for this is to build a continuous timeline of each venue's history, all the various names it had over the years and when it did or didn't host an open mic.

Anyone can submit a revised version of any venue's details by clicking the "Edit" button on the venue details page. You will need to have registered an account in order to do this which only takes a moment.

Can I trust the information on your site, is it up-to-date?

Any information on the web could potentially be out of date and Open Mic Finder is not exempt. Venue owners and event organisers tend to apply more enthusiasm when promoting a newly launched event than they do when announcing the cancellation of one. Sadly, data is sometimes left to rot.

This is why the site had to introduce a policy of automatically presuming a venue no longer hosts an open mic if nobody has submitted a revision in over a year.

Here are my tips for assessing the accuracy of the data on any venue details page:

1. Look at the date the revision was submitted. Every venue details page displays it.
2. See if there are confirmed dates displayed. Confirmed dates are manually added by a user and show a clear dedication to hosting the event on that date.
3. Click on the profile of the account that submitted the current revision and see how active they are. If their account has only ever submitted 1 revision it might have been a trial event that failed to gain traction.
4. Check any linked social media accounts. If they haven't posted for months or there are comments and questions going unanswered, it could be a sign they've lost interest in running the event.
5. Finally, if after all the above steps, you're still not confident, phone the venue. If the line is dead the venue might have closed.

If you do discover a venue's details are definitely out of date, please help out by submitting a revision.

Do you rank the events on how good they are?

No. Absolutely not. Open Mic Finder has a core principle of impartiality. Although scoring and ranking the venues may seem like a natural thing for a website to try and do it would be impossible to collect high quality data. There are too many variables affecting an individual's definition of "good". Not least the fact that the definition of an open mic is a lack of a screening process and an unpredictable lineup. Some venues can be absolutely joyous one day, but a sort of awkward chaos on another.

Remember, everyone — including you — is responsible for lifting the energy in the room. Smile warmly, cheer appreciatively, don't get hungup on imperfections, allow yourself to laugh easily, and celebrate each performer's achievements.

There's an open mic in the town centre on Wednesdays, why isn't it listed?

Because you haven't submitted it yet. Open Mic Finder is not a team of people dedicating their life to collecting data. Open Mic Finder is a Wiki-style platform for a community to share venue details. Every venue needs a person associated with it, who can volunteer to receive an automated email a couple of times a year, requesting that they confirm the current status. That person does not have to be the event organiser or even the venue owner. Just someone who attends the open mic.

There is another reason why some open mics are not listed on this site and ironically it's because they are so popular and well attended that they do not need to promote outside of their immediate vicinity. This is a bit sad because it feels like a bit of a local clique, unwelcoming to outsiders.

How many hits does Open Mic Finder get?

Exactly what counts as a "hit" is pretty subjective. Counting unique visitors is my preferred measurement because I do not build the site to trap people into engaging for as long as possible. I build the site to deliver people the result they need fast and if that means they only view 3 pages that's fine.

The site grew organically since it's launch in 2010 and by 2018/2019 the site would get 20,000 unique visitors per month. Obviously the COVID pandemic put a sudden stop to that with a low of 2,733 unique visitors in the month of May 2020. It took a couple of years for visitors to return. From start of 2022 and through 2023 there was a fairly steady average of 15,000 unique visitors per month, not back to pre-pandemic numbers but certainly healthy. 2024 and 2025 saw steady growth with each month in 2025 receiving around 30% more than the previous year. By 2025 the site was attracting around 30,000 unique visitors per month.

Interestingly, since 2023 a fairly reliable pattern has emerged that is not observable in the years before. Visitor numbers now seem to follow an annual pattern with the lowest trough always being around April and the highest around November. This may suggest Open Mics are considered an activity for the darker months, with their appeal less widespread in the Spring time. Perhaps we have developed an increased appreciation for being outdoors after the pain of lockdown.

An interesting anomaly occurred in November 2024 when the site received 10 times normal traffic. The sudden spike was made up of a massive increase in traffic from the United States and Canada. I cannot think what event may have occurred in that part of the World that suddenly made 160,000 more people seek a stage upon which to speak.