meta_query in wp_query not working as expected

Question

I am trying to do a meta_query, but not getting expected results. In this particular case, the key in question is "_EventHideFromUpcoming" (see below) with a value of "yes" (stored as a string). Also, if the value is not "yes", the key "_EventHideFromUpcoming" is not present at all.

I have the following query:

date_default_timezone_set('America/New_York');
$now = date('Y-m-d H:i:s');
$args = array(
    'post_type' => 'tribe_events',
    'posts_per_page' => '-1',
    'orderby' => '_EventStartDate',
    'order' => 'ASC',
    'meta_query' => array(
        'relation' => 'AND',
        array(
            'key' => '_EventEndDate',
            'value' => $now,
            'compare' => '>=',
        ),
        array(
        'relation' => 'OR',
            array(
                'key' => '_EventHideFromUpcoming',
                'compare' => 'NOT EXISTS',
            ),
            array(
                'key' => '_EventHideFromUpcoming',
                'value' => 'yes',
                'compare' => '=',
            ),
        ),
    ),
);

I've tried reducing my query down to simply getting one result with "_EventHideFromUpcoming" set to "yes" but still not able to. I've tried using essentially the same query with different meta keys and it works. It seems like all "_EventHideFromUpcoming" set to "yes" are being filtered out before I run my query.

Answer 1

It is not working because there is a custom query in the events plugin that adds the posts to be ignored (not returned) when you run WP_Query. See getHideFromUpcomingEvents() method in the-events-calendar/src/Tribe/Query.php. But there is however a filter hook that you can use there to do whatever. See the following sample code:

function wpse283031_hide_ids( $ids )
{
    $ids = [];
    return $ids;
}
/* this filter should be added **before** you run WP_Query */
add_filter( 'tribe_events_hide_from_upcoming_ids', 'wpse283031_hide_ids' );

Another thing you can try is add 'suppress_filters' => true to your query args. As in:

$args = [
    ...
    'suppress_filters' => true
];