No problem ;) In answer to your questions:
1) There is no setting within the Vantage admin dashboard to remove the search field, so it would require customization on your part if you wanted to do that. It wouldn't disrupt the theme not having it there, but you will of course need coding knowledge to make the change.
2) Yes, disabling events will mean there is no reference to it on the front end at all, with only the option to activate it showing in the
wp-admin also.
3) The demo site is what the theme is like out of the box with no additional plugins, so other than adding your own categories/listings and selecting the widgets you want, it can be set up to look exactly the same without modifications. Thanks.