This study examines how community-driven urban do-it-yourself initiatives maintain appropriate levels of openness while ensuring sufficient degrees of social order. For this, a specific event is analysed using an analytic framework that differentiates decided and emergent orders. The results indicate how various aspects of the event feature combinations of these orders that serve to sustain it and produce desired outcomes. These combinations indicate certain key factors that facilitate the balance of order and openness in community-driven initiatives. The paper concludes with reflections on the practical implications.