To be discouraged to book tickets

[LovelyLovelyWarmCoffee]

Local yearly event, tickets now available to buy. Not cheap, £50-100 for a family.
On the event’s website they advertise the fact that they are giving several thousands of tickets for free to « the community » : local community groups, borough emergency services, charity workers can nominate their staff or colleagues, etc.

First thought: that’s nice.
Second thought: this makes the event organiser look good but actually it is people buying tickets who are subsiding this.

AIBU to be put off buying tickets that are making me basically pay for the organiser’s PR campaign? Why not sell tickets at a lower price and the company pledge to give x£ to t »the community » for every ticket sold?

Completely agree, most of the emergency services are on a decent wage now ( my friend is a nurse and she is more than happy with her pay), and yes it does annoy me when you see some of the freebies that they get. The argument about them paying for parking is another than gets my back up. I earn £4.50 an hour less than my friend and I have to pay £9 a day to park.

Well yes to be honest, the money might be more needed at the local foodbank.
But even this aside, I’m annoyed at the event organiser basically making us pay to then be able to say they have done a good deed.