Free university website

Hello,

This is my first post here, so I hope it's an appropriate place to ask such a question.

I've just volunteered for a free university that has just started up. The idea is to connect people who want to teach some free classes and the public. The classes could be based in any location of our city.

I have already got the start of a Moodle site up and running, but I'm having doubts about it because it's slow, it's got a lot of functionality we'll never use, and the PHP code is not very nice to modify.

My requirements of an alternative/s would be:

    open source/no cost

    Set permission for teachers so that they create events that students can book onto.

    Have event categories

    Have confirmation/cancellation emails sent out automatically.

    Possibly be able to upload files to associate with the event.

    Have recurring events eg. weekly.

    Easy to modify (my fav language is Python, but can use/learn others).

    Maybe some nice themes to make it look good

Does anyone have any ideas about what tools I might use for this project?

Thanks,

Neil