The Metro: Hospitality Included Festival returns with new ‘community ticketing’ model
David Leins The Metro August 14, 2025Hospitality Included Fest ’25 will feature over 30 food vendors on Sunday, August 24 at Detroit Design District in the North End neighborhood.

Poster for Hospitality Included Fest '25.
After a two-year break, the Hospitality Included food and drink festival is set to return to Detroit’s North End.
The Detroit-based industry group Hospitality Included will host 30 of the city’s top bars, restaurants and pop-up chefs as vendors at the one-day outdoor festival. Popular eateries including Freya, Fried Chicken & Caviar, Flowers of Vietnam and Dutch Girl Donuts will have food on offer.
Hospitality Included Fest ’25 is August 24 at Detroit Design District in Detroit’s North End neighborhood.
Thor Jones, founder of Hospitality Included, joined the Metro to discuss the festival, what it took to bring it back after two years, and the ‘community ticketing’ model the festival is using this year for admission.
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Authors
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David Leins is the senior producer of WDET’s daily news and culture program, The Metro. He has produced several award-winning podcasts and multimedia series at WDET including Tracked and Traced, Science of Grief and COVID Diaries, which earned a National Edward R. Murrow Award for Excellence in Innovation. He previously led WDET’s StoryMakers program. David has an M.A. in Media Arts and Studies from Wayne State University, and a B.A. in anthropology from Grand Valley State University with a minor in Arabic. David teaches podcasting at Wayne State University and is an alumnus of the Transom Audio Storytelling Workshop.