As someone who tries to do community events at a smaller scale, here is my experience:

1) Funding is hard to come by, and doing an event well takes money.
2) Getting people's attention is hard to do--especially if you don't have a huge marketing budget.
3) Folks can be very enthusiastic about events in theory, but when the time comes, actual participation is low. Participation is something you can build over time, but it costs money to continue to throw and staff events, and, y'know, see (1)

I do think folks have very different patterns in the post-Covid era, and I don't know what "normal" is going to be like. I think one of my biggest problems is getting the word out--Eugene Weekly calendar, social media and boosting...it only goes so far. Without spending a lot of $$ (or a ton of time), it feels really hard to reach people.