How to query posts with current or future date only

Question

I want to only get posts with current or future dates, to show upcoming events.

Current arguments:

$args = array( 
    'post_type' => 'event', 
    'meta_key'  => 'event_start_date',
    'orderby'   => 'meta_value',
    'order'     => 'ASC'
);

This returns all the posts, including past events.

I read about post_status but it did not seem to work. I tried 'post_status' => 'future' without success.

Answer 1

adding the following arguments did the trick

'meta_value' => date('Y-m-d h:i'),
      'meta_compare' => '>',

Answer 2

Adding 'post_status' => array('publish', 'future') to your $args will show only future published posts.

$args = array(
    'post_type'   => 'event', 
    'meta_key'    => 'event_start_date',
    'orderby'     => 'meta_value',
    'order'       => 'ASC',
    'post_status' => array('publish', 'future')
    );
get_posts( $args );