Unique ticketing model at Detroit hospitality festival allows people to pay it forward
After a nearly two-year hiatus, a popular event is back in Detroit.
Hospitality Included Fest 25 on Sunday celebrated the people, food, music and art that make the city special.
Set against the backdrop of the Detroit design district on the city's north end is the marquee event for Hospitality Included.
"We promote the hospitality industry, but we also promote it as hospitality as a way of life, of just being hospitable to your neighbor, a good person, essentially," Thor Jones, founder of Hospitality Included, said.
This is the fourth festival in five years.
"We missed out on last year. Just change the venue, funding, too many hurdles, not enough time," Jones said.
But all that is back on track this year.
"Hospitality people are the salt of the earth, and we know that," Stephanie Leon, project manager, said. "But there's something really, really special about the people from this place, and there's something very, very special about the land and the history, and just really understanding that this is the home of so many different innovations."
The festival's unique community ticketing model is a pay-it-forward approach.
Instead of buying a ticket for themselves, businesses and individuals purchased tickets that covered the cost for others.
"This is to close the funding gap, and they're $5 tickets. So drop $20 and, you know, it helps you get somebody else in," Jones said.
The goal was to sell 7,000 tickets before the festival.
"We sold over 4,000, which was enough to put the festival on. So, we just made it free," Jones said.
What started with just seven food vendors and 250 visitors has grown to more than 30 food vendors and thousands of community members.