A Detroit music festival is changing its ticket pricing system after organizers say they were harassed by white supremacists and racist comments.
When AfroFuture Fest, an August Afrocentric music and art festival, opened ticket sales, organizers were charging "early bird" people of color $10 and “non-POC” $20, with other tickets as high as $40 on Eventbrite.
Last weekend, after the event was widely publicized and debated across social media, the national attention prompted organizers to change the pricing to $20 for all attendees.
Organizers originally posted the event with an explanation: The prices were based on the idea of equitable access to festivals, which they said are often cost-prohibitive and do not benefit the black communities that host them.
“Events often designed for marginalized Black and Brown communities can be easily co-opted by those with cultural, monetary, and class privileges,” organizer Numi Ori wrote on Facebook. “Our goal is to ensure that the youth of our communities can participate in the building of a just society; one that promotes EQUITY over EQUALITY.[sic]”
In a Monday post, Ori wrote that she and fellow organizer Franchesca Lamarre were changing the pricing system because of racist harassment. “There is no other reason why. This was for the sake of safety,” she wrote.
“I don’t feel not one ounce of sadness or regret about Franchesca Lamarre and I’s choice for creating this ticket structure,” Ori wrote in a July 5 Facebook post. “...Don’t comment on here about what we could have done differently with the structure. We did what we did and equity matters.”
[link:https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/detroit/2019/07/08/afrofuture-festival-detroit-ticket-pricing/1674210001/|
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