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Afrofuture festival scraps race-based ticket prices

The controversial Afrofuture Youth Fest in Detroit has reversed its race-based ticket pricing policy and been forced by Eventbrite to remove a donation option open only to white attendees.

Organisers said the change to the pricing structure on its Eventbrite listing – whereby tickets for people of colour were half the price charged to white people – was made for “safety” reasons, according to the New York Times. The amendment came after Eventbrite threatened to remove the listing as it violated its terms of sale.

While organisers changed all ticket prices to $20, initially a suggested donation option remained for tickets sold to white people. However, that did not satisfy Eventbrite and the event management giant has now removed the donation option.

Eventbrite told Fox News: “We do not permit events that require attendees to pay different prices based on their protected characteristics such as race or ethnicity. When we became aware of the violation with AfroFuture Fest, we notified the creator of the event and requested that they alter their ticket pricing accordingly. We also let them know that if they did not comply, we would remove the event completely from our site.

“While the creator removed the discriminatory pricing for admission, we were made aware they added an optional donation ticket type that was still based on a protected characteristic.

“Given this also violated our terms, we removed that specific ticket type and communicated to the creator that they can include a donation option so long as it’s inclusive of all attendees.”

Despite the ticket price change, the festival’s listing still contains its justification for charging different races different prices.

Adrienne Ayers, the founder and co-director of AfroFuture Youth, told The New York Times that organisers changed the event prices after receiving harassment regarding the pricing structure.

“For safety, not anything else but that, the new ticket structure will be a standard set price across the board of $20,” Ayers said.