I maintain ICS calendars for a few dance series. You can subscribe to them
to get the whole dance series in your calendar app. I hope you find them
useful.
Pick the calendar app or software you use:
Google Calendar
As of 2019, you still can’t subscribe to calendars directly from the mobile
app. Instead, you have to add the calendar in the Google Calendar web
interface and it will sync to the app through your Google Account. It’s a
little ugly, but it works.
Copy the URL for the calendar you want here:
Open the Add calendar → From URL
Google Calendar settings page in a new tab by clicking that link. (If
you’re not signed in to your Google Account already, it will make you do
that first.)
Paste the URL you copied in Step 1 into the ‘URL of calendar’ box, and then
click ‘Add calendar’.
It’s done! (If you’re on a phone, you might not be able to see the
notification slide up at the bottom of the page.) But if you use a mobile
device, read on…
Get the calendar on your phone
The instructions above add the calendar to your Google Calendar account, but
it is only shown in the web interface. The calendar will not show up
automatically on your phone or other devices.
Follow these steps for each device you want to see the calendar on.
Make sure you added the calendar by following the steps above first!
Open the Google Calendar app.
Open Settings (from the hamburger sidebar).
There is a list of calendars in your Google Account. Tap ‘Show more’ and
then tap the calendar you just added.
If the calendar isn’t in the list, Google might need a minute to finish
syncing your account.
Finally, turn on Sync for that calendar.
Phew!
Apple Calendar
These instructions are for Apple's Calendar app on the Mac. There are
slightly different instructions for Calendar on iOS.
Click the link for the calendar you want to subscribe to:
Your browser will ask if it’s okay to open the link in Calendar. The
specific message depends on your browser. Click Allow or OK.
Calendar will open with a panel telling you to enter a calendar URL, but
the input field will already be filled out correctly. Click “Subscribe”.
Calendar will take a moment to subscribe, then it will open the info panel
for you to confirm the calendar settings. You can just click OK and accept
the defaults. But if you want to change the calendar colour or sync it on
iCloud, you can set that here.
That’s it! It might take a minute before events show up, but just closing
and re-opening Calendar seems to get it going properly.
Calendar on iOS
Tap the link for the calendar you want to subscribe to:
Safari will ask if you're sure you want to subscribe to the calendar. Tap
Subscribe.
Then Safari will confirm that the calendar was added. You can just tap
Done, or you can tap View Events to open the calendar.
Microsoft Office Outlook
Confusingly, Microsoft also uses the name “Outlook” for their online
web-based services Outlook.com, Outlook on the Web, and Office 365. If you use
Outlook in a browser, follow the instructions for
Outlook on the Web instead.
This should work for most recent versions of Outlook, at least
2007–2016.
Click the link for the calendar you want to subscribe to:
Your browser will ask if it’s okay to open the link in Outlook. The
specific message depends on your browser. Click Allow or OK.
Outlook will show a prompt asking if you want to “add this Internet
calendar to Outlook and subscribe to updates”. Click Yes.
That’s it! Outlook might show the calendar beside your other calendars.
You can switch to a single-calendar view with events from all calendars by
turning on Overlay mode from the toolbar’s View tab.
Outlook on the Web
Confusingly, Microsoft also uses the name “Outlook” for the desktop mail and
calendar program that’s part of Microsoft Office. If you use Outlook
not in a browser, follow the instructions for
Outlook (Desktop) instead.
Open your Outlook calendar in a new tab.
In the top bar, click “Add calendar”, and from that menu, click “From
Internet”. A calendar subscription sidebar will pop out on the right.
Copy the link for the calendar you want here:
Paste the link in the “Link to the calendar” field of the Calendar
subscription sidebar. You can fill out the calendar name too if you want.
If you leave the calendar name blank, it will automatically use the name of
the dance (“Ottawa Contra Dance” or “ContraMontreal”). Then click Save.
Other calendar software
Try clicking the link for the calendar you want to subscribe to:
If your browser offers to open the link with the calendar app you want,
great! Follow the directions it gives you to subscribe.
Otherwise, click Cancel on opening the link (or “Launch Application”
or whatever your browser is showing) and open your calendar app.
Look for a way to subscribe to a calendar by URL or on the Web. Often if
you can find a list of your calendars there will be a button nearby to add
another. It will ask for a URL or calendar address.
Dance calendars