Afrofuture Fest in Detroit faced heavy criticism over their initial ticket prices. The festival’s original Eventbrite page listed “early bird POC tickets” as $10, and $20 for “non-POC” tickets. The festival is promoted as a “360 transformative dreamscape centering Detroit’s Black magic performers and artisans with community. “
The backlash was swift and loud, coming from the public as well as some of the scheduled performers. After hearing of the pricing, a local artist that was on the lineup pulled out of her scheduled performance. She explained that the situation made her uncomfortable since she was biracial. Due to all the backlash and even hateful messages, Afrofuture announced that they are changing the pricing. As a result, all tickets are now $20 general admission with a “suggested donation” for non-POC attendees.
AfroFuture Fest explained the logic behind the pricing to Detroit Metro Times as written:
Equality means treating everyone the same. Equity is ensuring everyone has what they need to be successful. Our ticket structure was built to ensure that the most marginalized communities (people of color) are provided with an equitable chance at enjoying events in their own community (Black Detroit). Affording joy and pleasure is unfortunately still a privilege in our society for POC and we believe everyone should have access to receiving such.
