List threads in order of "event date" and not by most recent post

[chris frolic]

Giving it some thought, this hack sounds like it would take a lot of work and not of much mass-appeal, but I'm going to post my request anyways:

I have a forum on my board which is used to promote upcoming events in my area. Local promoters will post the details of their events and attendees can discuss the show within that thread.

I'm incurring two problems;

first off, some threads get repeatedly bumped to the top either through active posts, but more likely through just plain bumps.

second problem is that other shows quickly fall to the bottom (and off) the page either through premature bumping of some threads, or just not much activity in others.

A perfect solution would be that the date of each event is kept somewhere (now they're posted in the Subject) and the forum would list them by their date. If an event is this coming week, it will be at the top of the list, no matter how many responses it may have.

Dunno, just thought I'd throw it out there. Any other solutions to listing threads through alternative means?