Revenue / 07.11.19

Music Festival Will No Longer Charge White People More for Tickets

Access Staff

New York Post (07/08/19) Brown, Lee

Detroit's AfroFuture Fest music festival announced it has ditched a plan to charge white concertgoers twice as much as people of color, citing worries about the "safety of the community" following fierce outrage. Biracial rapper Tiny Jag was apparently so "enraged" that she publicly withdrew from the event, and ticketing website Eventbrite threatened to ban the festival from its services. The festival claimed its decision to drop the plan was attributed to racist threats, and not to the race-based disparity itself. Nevertheless, Eventbrite stated earlier that AfroFuture would not be allowed to continue using its website if it maintained its pricing policy. "We do not permit events that require attendees to pay different prices based on their protected characteristics such as race or ethnicity," the company declared. Organizers had previously claimed that the ticketing policy was "built to insure [sic] that the most marginalized communities [people of color] are provided with an equitable chance at enjoying events in their own community [Black Detroit]." They added that "affording joy and pleasure is unfortunately still a privilege in our society for POC and we believe everyone should have access to receiving such."

Read the full article on the New York Post.

Tags: News , Eventbrite