TL;DR
- Many hackathons aren’t featured on Luma’s discover page but are public and trackable.
- Hidden Events lists 3273 public Luma events, including 2480 hidden ones.
- The Startup category has the highest hidden share at 83.7%.
- Austin’s hidden event share is 91.4%, the highest among ranked cities.
- Wednesday is the busiest day for event starts, with 18.1%.
You want to find hackathons, but Luma’s discover page shows just a portion of what’s really happening. Hidden Events tracks public Luma events in 23 cities, surfacing hackathons and tech gatherings that aren’t promoted. If you want to find hackathons that others miss, you need to look beyond the usual listings.
Why are so many hackathons not featured on Luma’s discover page?
Many hackathons aren’t featured on Luma’s discover page, even though they’re public and open to RSVPs. Hidden Events lists 2480 hidden events, meaning 75.8% of all Luma events aren’t promoted. This includes hackathons, workshops and tech meetups. You can check Luma’s discover page at Luma discover page, but the featured events there represent a smaller share of what’s actually happening. If you want more options, all the Luma events we track is the place to start.
Hidden Events crawls public event data from Luma every four hours, so you’re seeing events that organizers have made public but aren’t shown on the discover page. Many tech events often fall into this hidden group. If you’re looking for hackathons, you need to check both featured and hidden events.
Here’s the main answer: Hidden Events lists 3273 public Luma events, and 2480 of them are hidden. This means many hackathons aren’t shown on Luma’s discover page, so you need to use Hidden Events to find them. You can browse Hidden Events or use the event checker to see if a hackathon is hidden.
How does the hidden share differ between cities?
The hidden event share changes from city to city, and some cities have more hackathons hidden from Luma’s discover page. Austin has the highest hidden share at 91.4%, while Lisbon has the lowest at 51.4%. If you’re searching for hackathons in Austin, you’ll often find many aren’t featured. In contrast, Lisbon’s events are more likely to be promoted.
You can check Austin events or Amsterdam events to see the difference. The median hidden share across cities is 67.9%. So, in many cities, the hidden share is around this level. If you’re focused on a specific city, you’ll want to browse the city’s event page, like San Francisco events or Seattle events, to see what’s hidden.
Here’s a quick table showing how the hidden share compares:
| City | Hidden Share (%) |
|---|---|
| Austin | 91.4% |
| Lisbon | 51.4% |
| Median city | 67.9% |
If you want hackathons in cities with a higher hidden share, start with Austin or Sydney. For cities with more featured events, Lisbon is a safer bet.
How does the hidden share differ between categories?
The Startup category has the highest hidden share, with 83.7% of events not featured. Many hackathons are tagged as Startup, so you’ll find more hidden hackathons in this category. On the other hand, Crypto has the lowest hidden share at 56.2%.
If you’re looking for hackathons, check the Startup category on San Francisco tech events or NYC tech events. Tech events overall count 108, so you have many to choose from. You can filter by category using the city events widget to see what’s coming up in your city. This helps you spot hackathons that aren’t promoted anywhere else.
Key takeaway: The Startup category has a higher hidden share, so hackathons tagged Startup are more likely to be found on Hidden Events than featured on Luma’s discover page.
How can organizers list their hackathon on Hidden Events?
Organizers who want their hackathon to show up on Hidden Events can use the add-event page. You just paste your Luma calendar link, and the event will be live in about ten minutes. The add-event page accepts up to ten Luma links per submission, making it easy for organizers running multiple hackathons.
Listing your event on Hidden Events means it’ll be visible to people searching for hackathons, even if it’s not featured on Luma’s discover page. If you want to know more about how this works, check our blog guide. And if you’re curious why hackathons often end up hidden, our guide to why luma events are hidden explains it.
What tools help you find hackathons that aren’t promoted?
Hidden Events offers several tools to help you find hackathons that aren’t promoted. The event checker lets you paste a Luma event link and see if it’s hidden. The city events widget shows upcoming events in your city, including hidden hackathons.
You can also browse San Francisco this weekend or NYC this weekend to see hackathons that start soon. If you want to know what’s happening midweek, remember that Tuesday is the busiest day, with 18.1% of events starting then. This means hackathons often kick off midweek.
If you need more details on scheduling, check Luma’s help center for official documentation. And for city-specific guides, our guide to events in nyc and our guide to events in bengaluru can help you find local hackathons.
Ready to find hackathons others miss? Browse all the Luma events we track and see what’s hidden right now.
About the author. Himanshu Saleria, Founder, Hidden Events. I love meeting people. I’ve been attending events, hosting them, and picking up patterns along the way for what makes a gathering worth showing up to. Hidden Events surfaces what I’ve been finding. Himanshu Saleria on LinkedIn