Problem with Pulling Event Entries
In Twig, you'll never need to double up on your curly brackets.  I.E.

{{ {{ }} }}


or 

{% {{ }} %}


Change this (which is already inside of {% %}:

event_startDateTime: '&lt;= {{ now }}',


To use string concatenation like this:

event_startDateTime: '&lt;= ' ~ now,


And you should be set.