Best way to configure WP 2.9.2 as an ‘Events’ cms?

I am developing a web site for listing events around my city. I know there are plugins for event calendars in WP, however I’d rather not use a plugin. I’d like for my posts to be events. The part I am stumbling around is what the best way to set this up, would be.

Do I use the built-in post date functionality as my event date, then setup the theme to display posts scheduled for a future date? Or, do I use custom fields to create a ‘date’ key, then figure out how to display posts by custom field value? What if the event spawns a couple days?

The events will be organized by categories, such as “concerts”, “festivals”, etc. But there will also be multiple events at certain venues…so should I use WP’s built-in categories functionality for both venues and categories?

Something like this, is what I’m going for.

My head starts to spin once I begin to think about how best to use WP 2.9.2 to run this…I really wish WP 3.0 was here.