Python 2

What you're looking for is urllib.quote_plus:

safe_string = urllib.quote_plus('string_of_characters_like_these:$#@=?%^Q^$')

#Value: 'string_of_characters_like_these%3A%24%23%40%3D%3F%25%5EQ%5E%24'

Python 3

In Python 3, the urllib package has been broken into smaller components. You'll use urllib.parse.quote_plus (note the parse child module)

import urllib.parse
safe_string = urllib.parse.quote_plus(...)

You need to pass your parameters into urlencode() as either a mapping (dict), or a sequence of 2-tuples, like:

>>> import urllib
>>> f = { 'eventName' : 'myEvent', 'eventDescription' : 'cool event'}
>>> urllib.urlencode(f)
'eventName=myEvent&eventDescription=cool+event'

Python 3 or above

Use urllib.parse.urlencode:

>>> urllib.parse.urlencode(f)
eventName=myEvent&eventDescription=cool+event

Note that this does not do url encoding in the commonly used sense (look at the output). For that use urllib.parse.quote_plus.

Try requests instead of urllib and you don't need to bother with urlencode!

import requests
requests.get('http://youraddress.com', params=evt.fields)

EDIT:

If you need ordered name-value pairs or multiple values for a name then set params like so:

params=[('name1','value11'), ('name1','value12'), ('name2','value21'), ...]

instead of using a dictionary.

Python 3:

urllib.parse.quote_plus(string, safe='', encoding=None, errors=None)