Detroit's Afro Nation festival releases performance times; still, more questions linger
The organizers of this weekend's Afro Nation Detroit festival released performance set times Friday afternoon, parting some of the clouds of mystery that have surrounded the event for weeks, leaving ticketholders in the dark.
Afro Nation, billed as “the world’s largest Afrobeats festival,” has proven successful in other cities since launching to more than 40,000 attendees in Portugal in 2019. It is expected to take place in Detroit Aug. 19-20 at Bedrock’s Douglass Site, 2490 Brush St., the former location of the Brewster-Douglass Projects, the nation’s first federally funded housing project for African Americans. Crews have been seen erecting massive stages at the site, but social media users have expressed frustration at not being given specifics about the location or parking.
Afrobeat stars such as Burna Boy, Latto, Ari Lennox, Davido and more are touted as being part of the weekend’s lineup, but ticketholders have expressed a lack of faith in the event, saying artists like Burna Boy have yet to confirm their involvement on their own personal pages. Multiple attempts by the Free Press to contact and obtain more concrete information from the Afro Nation team have been unsuccessful.
Friday's announcement on Afro Nation's U.S. Instagram account, however, still lists Burna Boy with a 9 p.m. Saturday performance time.
Friday afternoon, X (formerly Twitter) user @TheYelitsa posted, “Afro nation detroit starting to look like the new fyre Festival,” referencing the infamously failed 2017 Bahamas music festival that led to prison time for fraudulent organizer Billy McFarland.
Afro nation detroit starting to look like the new fyre Festival.
— Yelitsa Jean-Charles (@TheYelitsa) August 18, 2023
On Instagram, user @afronation.scam.victim has spent the last week demanding answers and chronicling community frustration with screen captures of comments and tweets. “CONCERT IS TOMORROW,” the account tweeted Friday afternoon. “STILL NO LINEUP?!” After the schedule release, the account shared a screengrab of the set times with the commentary, "I guess we weren't scammed after all!"
What we know
General admission tickets for the full weekend remain available at detroit.afronation.com starting at $229, making it one of the region’s most expensive public events of 2023. VIP and family passes are also available.
According to an email sent to ticketholders this week, wristbands can be collected at the festival site, with the address listed as 553-501 Winder St. The email did not provide times for pickup, but an info packet on the website lists 2-7 p.m. each day as hours for the main festival site. No further scheduling information has been made available.
The info packet also states that the festival has no allocated parking, “but there is plenty of public parking around the site. We suggest heading toward Little Caesars Arena parking facilities.” It also lists the 2490 Brush St. address as the drop-off/pick-up point, which it describes as a five-minute walk from the festival entrance.
A “homecoming conversations” pre-event took place Friday, Aug. 18 from noon to 4 p.m. at One Campus Martius; free tickets for the pre-event sold out in advance. Beloved Detroit Afrobeats party Jerk x Jollof is scheduled to hold a free, official Afro Nation Detroit welcome party Friday from 4 to 10 p.m. at the Monroe Street Midway, featuring Walshy Fire, Blakito and Sky Jetta. An evening of standup comedy featuring Nigerian comedian Kenny Blaq is also scheduled for Friday evening, from 7 to 11 p.m. at One Campus Martius. $15 tickets (ages 21 and up) are still available on the Afro Nation Detroit website.
See Afro Nation Detroit's set times below:
Contact Free Press arts and culture reporter Duante Beddingfield at dbeddingfield@freepress.com.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit's Afro Nation festival releases set times; questions linger
