[Support request] Ordering Events by Custom Field Date

Hi All,

I’m using WP Show Posts and ACF for a custom post type of EVENTS and want to sort them by the custom date field of event_date (Date Picker) and display only current events. I’m struggling with the PHP, but here’s the events page and the code I’m using. I’m sure I’ve got the code wrong. Any help appreciated!

if ( 2506 == $settings[ 'list_id' ] ) {   // beginning of events list	 
	$meta_events = get_post_meta( get_the_ID(), 'short_description', true );
	$date = get_field('event_date', false, false);	
	$date = new DateTime($date);
	$time_start = get_field('event_start_time', false, false);
	$time_start = new DateTime($time_start);
	$time_end = get_field('event_end_time', false, false);
	$time_end = new DateTime($time_end);
	$today = date('Ymd');
    
$event_args = array (
    'post_type' => 'events',
	'meta_key'	=> 'event_date',
	'orderby'	=> 'meta_value_num',
	'order'		=> 'ASC',
    'meta_query' => array(
		array(
	        'key'		=> 'event_date',
	        'compare'	=> '<=',
	        'value'		=> $today,
	    ),
			
),
);
	   
$posts_array = get_posts($event_args);
	   
	    foreach($posts_array as $post)
  {
        echo '<div class="films-page-syn">' . $meta_events . '</div>';	
		echo '<div class="event-date">';
			echo $date->format('F j, Y'), " // ", $time_start->format('g:i a'), "-", $time_end->format('g:i a');
		echo '</div>';	
    }	
}	// end of events list