Is there a way to publish a classified and make it available only in between two dates ? start date and end date ?

I want a category to publicize local festivals and fairs, for free, at least for a while.

The classified would be posted with a start and a end date and would only be visible on the start date and would expire on the end date.

I believe I can set the ad validated on the start date and expired on the end date by going directly into the the database, or explore if there's a web service that allows that.

But if there's any better way of doing it, it would be very much preferable.
Is this possible ?

Thanks,
Pete

Easiest solution would be to bring new custom fields /or attributes/ to publish page, available only to selected categories.
Then add function to cron that would check all such listings with populated dates, remove them from search page (or deactivate) when not up to date yet, and remove after end date.

Yes that seems the best option.
Thanks