An island-based network flow processor (IB-NFP) integrated circuit includes islands organized in rows. A configurable mesh event bus extends through the islands and is configured to form one or more local event rings and a global event chain. The configurable mesh event bus is configured with configuration information received via a configurable mesh control bus. Each local event ring involves event ring circuits and event ring segments. In one example, an event packet being communicated along a local event ring reaches an event ring circuit. The event ring circuit examines the event packet and determines whether it meets a programmable criterion. If the event packet meets the criterion, then the event packet is inserted into the global event chain. The global event chain communicates the event packet to a global event manager that logs events and maintains statistics and other information.