Public Notice

PUBLIC NOTICE – AFROBEATS LIVE – RACIAL PROFILING

Dear Guests/Artists,
Thank you for your interest and purchasing tickets to our forth coming Afrobeats Live event on 24th July 2021 scheduled at Oval and Canvas Space.
It is with deep regret to inform you that the management at the venue have been advised to pull all the “black events” from the venue due to an incident that occurred 2 weeks ago with another promoter and event unrelated to us. It is of course very unfair to Afrobeats Live, all the artists and team involved who have spent months organising the event. Whilst they won’t put this in writing, our team were informed over the phone that all events where the crowd would be significantly black had to be pulled to avoid losing their license. We questioned the racial profiling but also the authenticity as Afrobeats Live has not held an event for 3 years since DJ Abrantee suffered a stroke. Afrobeats Live’s demographic has always been mixed and varied in ages and deemed a zero to low risk event with no history of any disruption just due to the quality of our audience, promotion, music and classy venue we use.
Our well regarded platform that is celebrating 10 year success, lived a Jazz Café for many years and welcomed a diverse crowd and audience is to us not a black event, but an inclusive, mixed demographic who enjoy African Music. This of course will be challenged and is being challenged by our legal team; we have also made a point to discuss this and teamed up with other ‘black music” promoters who were also scheduled to hold events throughout this weekend to take this matter further.
Our team has spent the past 24 hours trying to secure an alternative venue to accommodate our ticket buyers, artists and special international guests that have already arrived in the UK but it as proved rather difficult at such short notice and with all venues opening up this weekend following the lifting of restrictions. We have however, been successful in finding a smaller venue to accommodate a small number, the artists and our film crew.
Whilst the event was advertised as not being-refundable, our reputation and relationship with our guests matters more and we of course can offer refunds to ticket holders who are not able to join us at the Luna Lounge tomorrow for reasons beyond their control. The event at Luna Lounge would have to finish by 1am in the morning, so it would be an earlier billing. However, we will encourage and invite a guests to continue to support us in our fight and the platform so we keep Afrobeats Live GOING.

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Again, apologies for this late and disappointing announcement. We assure you that following this weekend, we will make our disappointment public and ensure our lawyers take an active role to eliminate any future racial profiling especially for black businesses, promoters and young people trying to make a difference in this world and current climate.
Should you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us directly &nbsp

Kind regards

Team Afrobeats Live