Finding the right event theme for your WordPress website is important. Ideally, you want to go for a theme that:
- Lets you customize your event website’s front-end to properly show your brand.
- Delivers an intuitive user interface that improves attendee experience.
- Features a content-first design that highlights the event’s details.
- Can give you a professional look without being too complicated.
- Is well supported by the theme developer.
- Presents a responsive, mobile-friendly design.
In this article, we’ll share some of the best – free and premium – WordPress event themes that fit these criteria and are compatible with Event Espresso.
Let’s begin.
Article Outline
How to Choose a WordPress Theme (For Beginners)
If you’re new to WordPress, choosing the best event theme for your website might seem difficult. Here’s what you need to keep in mind when you’re searching for the right WordPress theme for your event website.
- Theme lock-in effect. The theme lock-in effect is when you’re stuck with a WordPress theme because it controls the site’s functionality i.e. the site would break if you were to change themes. Instead of going for an event theme that offers built-in event functionality, use a plugin like Event Espresso to handle event registration and ticketing functionality to avoid the theme lock-in effect.
- Customization. If you’re on a tight budget, opt for an event theme that looks good out of the box and requires little customization. Most premium themes give you lots of customization power.
- Features and functionality. Make a list of the features that you’ll need for your event website. If you’re planning on showcasing your conference’s keynote speakers, you’d want a theme that has a built-in widget specifically for that purpose.
- Credibility. Pay attention to the number of active installs, reviews, and ratings the theme has. The official WordPress Theme Directory has a huge collection of free event themes. If you’re thinking of purchasing a premium theme, make sure you’re buying from a credible theme marketplace or vendor.
- Documentation and support. Opt for a theme that comes with some sort of documentation or knowledge base. Premium themes generally come with support from the developers for a pre-defined period of time.
Extant, OceanWP, and Checathlon are excellent (and free) WordPress event themes that look great out of the box and need very little customization.
24 Great WordPress Themes to Use With Event Espresso
Whether you’re hosting a conference, festival, concert, or meetup, here are some of the best – free and premium – WordPress themes to use with Event Espresso:
1. Astra
Astra is a lightweight theme that features a minimalist design. It’s great for anyone who’s looking to build an event registration website for art classes, courses, training classes, or first aid classes. Its premium version offers integration with popular e-learning solutions like LifterLMS and LearnDash.
Astra Theme in use with Event Espresso
2. OceanWP
OceanWP is one of the most popular themes available in the WordPress Theme Directory with over 100,000 active installs as of this writing. It offers a number of one-click, free demos that you can use to change the look and feel of your event site. OceanWP makes it easy to showcase speakers, trainers, or coaches, and share their event’s details through the homepage.
3. Brilliance
CPO Themes’ Brilliance is a conversion-optimized event theme for WordPress that can help you increase registrations and sell more tickets. It features a neat and clean design with a focus on high-quality imagery. The theme also has a premium version that comes with premium support from the developers.
4. Draco
Draco is a simple, bare-bones WordPress theme that is great for anyone wants to allow prospective attendees to register through their website. It’s a great theme for nonprofits, church events, and fundraisers.
5. Wlow
Wlow is a lightweight WordPress theme that leverages white space and large background images to give your site a professional look and feel.
6. Anissa
AlienWP’s Anissa is a clean, minimalist WordPress theme that you can pair with Event Espresso to put your event post types center stage. It’s an ideal theme for anyone who’s looking to host multiple events.
7. Cubic
If you have lots of photos from a previous event that you’d like to use to entice attendees to attend your upcoming event, then Cubic is the perfect theme for it. It features a grid-based layout that’s great for displaying large images.
8. Extant
Theme Hybrid’s Extant is a free WordPress theme that also has a premium version available for anyone who wants support from the developers. It’s neat and clean layout is great for showcasing event post types and event highlights through featured images and photos.
Extant Theme in use with Event Espresso
9. Baskerville
Baskerville is a responsive, retina-ready masonry theme which makes it a great choice for showcasing events and galleries. We’ve developed a child theme for Baskerville that’s optimized specifically for Event Espresso 4.
10. Eighties
Eighties is neat, minimalist-style theme for Event Espresso-based websites that features fun typography and a large header image. It’s great for anyone who’s looking to build a lightweight event registration and ticketing website.
11. Hexa
Those of you who want a colorful and responsive event registration website should definitely give Hexa a shot. Its geometric UI elements make it an ideal choice for event organizers hosting workshops, seminars, or conferences.
12. Isola
Isola comes with a number of different page templates, clean typography, and large images making it the perfect theme for your event registration and ticketing website.
13. Radiate
ThemeGrill’s Radiate is a feature-rich business theme that’s perfect for conferences, seminars, and workshops. It lets users customize primary color option and backgrounds as well as add custom CSS directly through the WordPress Customizer. We’ve also developed a child theme for Radiate that works seamlessly with Event Espresso 4.
14. Ariel
LyraThemes’ Ariel is a powerful yet lightweight theme that packs sliders, social media icons, banner images, sticky posts, and much more. It’s great for event organizers who’d like to promote their event and encourage visitors to share event details with their social media following.
15. Munsa Lite
Munsa Lite leverages white space and large imagery to give your event registration website a professional look and feel. The theme comes with documentation and support so setting it up on your Event Espresso-based site should be a breeze. Munsa Lite is a great choice for retreat events, art and painting classes, writing workshops, and much more.
16. Underwood
ThemeShift’s Underwood is a unique, customizable event theme that offers a number of different layouts and post styles. Its focus on imagery and neat homepage carousel makes it ideal for showcasing multiple events.
17. Chuchadon
Chuchadon is a sports-oriented theme that’s great for event organizers who host sporting events (like golf tournaments), summer camps, car shows, festivals, and backyard BBQs.
18. Checathlon
The Checathlon theme’s clean design is well suited for showcasing event tickets, testimonials, keynote speakers, and pricing information. It’s great for all sorts of event types including conferences, forums, expos, conventions, and courses.
19. Barista
Barista is a custom child theme for Event Espresso 4 that’s built using Beaver Builder. It comes with event-specific functionality out of the box which makes it easy to set up – even for event organizers who aren’t particularly technically inclined.
20. Themify Base
Themify Base is a child theme for Event Espresso 4 that you can use to showcase event galleries, publish event post types, register attendees, and sell event tickets.
21. Radcliffe
Radcliffe is a feature-packed child theme that’s optimized for Event Espresso 4. It’s fully customizable and intuitive making it a great choice for event organizers who are new to WordPress and for those who are proficient with the software.
22. Conference Pro
If you’re looking for a premium conference theme for your next event then Conference Pro is definitely worth exploring. It packs all kinds of neat features including a countdown widget, call to action widgets, tabbed conference schedules, and venue and pricing information.
23. Mondree
Showthemes’ Mondree is a powerful premium event theme that’s perfect for conferences, seminars, workshops, and conventions. It lets you showcase your keynote speakers, share event details, news, and sell event tickets from your site’s homepage.
24. OpenEvent
OpenEvent by Showthemes is a colorful, premium event theme that allows event organizers to set up their site and start accepting registrations right away. It packs event-specific functionality (like showcasing speakers, event itinerary, and ticket information) and works seamlessly with Event Espresso 4.
Conclusion
The best event WordPress theme for your website depends on what type of event you’re hosting, your event brand, and whether you need priority support from the theme developers or not.
- Those of you who are looking for a free WordPress event theme that’s customizable and intuitive should give Extant or OceanWP a shot.
- And if you’d like to go with a child theme that’s optimized for Event Espresso 4, we recommend trying out Barista, Baskerville, or Radiate child themes.
- If you’re not particularly tech-savvy and are considering customizing your site’s theme, we’d recommend going for a premium event theme that comes with support from the developers. Conference Pro and OpenEvent are excellent options.
- If you are curious about how Event Espresso will look with your theme, before buying the regular version, you can install Event Espresso Decaf to see how it looks.
Which theme do you use on your WordPress event website? We’d love to hear from you so let us know by commenting below!
Our members use Event Espresso to power all kinds of event websites including conferences, nonprofit events, workshops, art classes, and more!
Are you a WordPress theme developer? Would you like to see your WordPress theme featured in this list? Get in touch by sending us an email!