diff --git a/depends/packages/libevent.mk b/depends/packages/libevent.mk
index 4b02b2eff9..70f345e71d 100644
--- a/depends/packages/libevent.mk
+++ b/depends/packages/libevent.mk
@@ -1,13 +1,11 @@
 package=libevent
-$(package)_version=2.0.22
-$(package)_download_path=https://github.com/libevent/libevent/releases/download/release-2.0.22-stable
-$(package)_file_name=$(package)-$($(package)_version)-stable.tar.gz
-$(package)_sha256_hash=71c2c49f0adadacfdbe6332a372c38cf9c8b7895bb73dabeaa53cdcc1d4e1fa3
-$(package)_patches=reuseaddr.patch libevent-2-fixes.patch
+$(package)_version=2.1.7
+$(package)_download_path=https://github.com/libevent/libevent/archive/
+$(package)_file_name=release-$($(package)_version)-rc.tar.gz
+$(package)_sha256_hash=548362d202e22fe24d4c3fad38287b4f6d683e6c21503341373b89785fa6f991
 
 define $(package)_preprocess_cmds
-  patch -p1 < $($(package)_patch_dir)/reuseaddr.patch && \
-  patch -p1 < $($(package)_patch_dir)/libevent-2-fixes.patch
+  ./autogen.sh
 endef
 
 define $(package)_set_vars
diff --git a/depends/patches/libevent/libevent-2-fixes.patch b/depends/patches/libevent/libevent-2-fixes.patch
deleted file mode 100644
index 79fec8a488..0000000000
--- a/depends/patches/libevent/libevent-2-fixes.patch
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,18 +0,0 @@
---- a/util-internal.h	2013-11-01 12:18:57.000000000 -0600
-+++ b/util-internal.h	2015-07-20 20:19:43.199560900 -0500
-@@ -299,8 +299,13 @@ HANDLE evutil_load_windows_system_librar
- 
- #if defined(__STDC__) && defined(__STDC_VERSION__)
- #if (__STDC_VERSION__ >= 199901L)
--#define EV_SIZE_FMT "%zu"
--#define EV_SSIZE_FMT "%zd"
-+ #if defined(_MSC_VER) || defined(__MINGW32__) || defined(__MINGW64__)
-+  #define EV_SIZE_FMT "%Iu"
-+  #define EV_SSIZE_FMT "%Id"
-+ #else
-+  #define EV_SIZE_FMT "%zu"
-+  #define EV_SSIZE_FMT "%zd"
-+ #endif
- #define EV_SIZE_ARG(x) (x)
- #define EV_SSIZE_ARG(x) (x)
- #endif
diff --git a/depends/patches/libevent/reuseaddr.patch b/depends/patches/libevent/reuseaddr.patch
deleted file mode 100644
index 58695c11f5..0000000000
--- a/depends/patches/libevent/reuseaddr.patch
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,21 +0,0 @@
---- old/evutil.c   2015-08-28 19:26:23.488765923 -0400
-+++ new/evutil.c   2015-08-28 19:27:41.392767019 -0400
-@@ -321,15 +321,16 @@
- int
- evutil_make_listen_socket_reuseable(evutil_socket_t sock)
- {
--#ifndef WIN32
- 	int one = 1;
-+#ifndef WIN32
- 	/* REUSEADDR on Unix means, "don't hang on to this address after the
- 	 * listener is closed."  On Windows, though, it means "don't keep other
- 	 * processes from binding to this address while we're using it. */
- 	return setsockopt(sock, SOL_SOCKET, SO_REUSEADDR, (void*) &one,
- 	    (ev_socklen_t)sizeof(one));
- #else
--	return 0;
-+	return setsockopt(sock, SOL_SOCKET, SO_REUSEADDR, (const char*) &one,
-+		(ev_socklen_t)sizeof(one));
- #endif
- }
-