How can I customise events list page?

I have copied events-manager/templates/templates/events-list.php to my theme folder and changed settings in events-manager (pages > event list/archives > override with formats > no)

I have the following code in events-list.php:

$args = apply_filters('em_content_events_args', $args);

if( get_option('dbem_css_evlist') ) echo "<div class='css-events-list'>";

echo EM_Events::output(array('format'=>
'<a href="#_EVENTURL" border=0>why doesnt this work</a>
<B>#_EVENTLINK</B><br/>#_EVENTDATES #_EVENTTIMES<BR/><i>#_LOCATIONNAME, #_LOCATIONADDRESS, #_LOCATIONTOWN </i><br/><a href="#_EVENTURL">Details & map</a><HR>',
 'limit'=>20, 'pagination'=>1));

if( get_option('dbem_css_evlist') ) echo "</div>";

But it doesn’t display anything, apart from the category name and notes which are included from taxonomy-event-categories.php . Please can someone give me some guidance on what I have done wrong with events-list.php?

Thank-you!

https://www.ads-software.com/plugins/events-manager/