How can I define this 3 way Eloquent Relationship?

Question

I have the following setup. An Event has multiple dates (Instances) on which it runs, and can run at multiple Venues on the same date. The goal is to visit the Event page (example.com/event/1) and have it list all the dates and their venues for that event. So I have the following tables:

events: id, name

instances: id, date, event_id

venues: id, name

However, I can't work out the correct way to relate the three together. I have tried various combinations of belongsToMany (using an instance_venue pivot table) and hasManyThrough but to no avail: I just get one error after another.

What's the best way to go about it?

Here are my Models:

Event.php

class Event extends Model {

    public function instances()
    {
        return $this->belongsToMany('App\Instance');
    }

}

Instance.php

class Instance extends Model {

    public function events()
    {
        return $this->belongsToMany('App\Event');
    }

}

Venue.php

class Venue extends Model {

    public function instances()
    {
        return $this->belongsToMany('App\Instance');
    }

}

EcentsController.php

use App\Event;

class EventsController extends Controller {

    public function index()
    {
        return 'Index!';
    }

    public function show($id)
    {
        $event = Event::with(['instances.venues'])->where('id','=',$id)->get();

        return $event;
    }
}

This throws the following error:

QueryException in Connection.php line 620:
SQLSTATE[42S02]: Base table or view not found: 1146 Table 'pivottest.event_instance' doesn't exist (SQL: select `instances`.*, `event_instance`.`event_id` as `pivot_event_id`, `event_instance`.`instance_id` as `pivot_instance_id` from `instances` inner join `event_instance` on `instances`.`id` = `event_instance`.`instance_id` where `event_instance`.`event_id` in (1))

Answer 1

Got it:

Event hasMany instances

Instance belongsTo Event and belongsToMany venues

Venue belongsToMany instances