Touring in Europe after Brexit

It's a bad time for the music industry. While we’re still immersed in this pandemic, one day I convince myself that by Summer we’ll have some sort of normality but then next day I assume that normality won’t come until 2022. It’s starting to be heartrending this emotional rollercoaster we’re going through. Covid aside, it's now time to talk about Brexit, more precisely about what it means to bands going on tour, because it’s already happening.

So far and following the agreement (or the lack of it) between Europe and the UK, there is simply no visa-free travel for working musicians. Which basically means that British bands will have to adhere to the immigration rules of each EU member state in which they go to play. Of course that works the other way around too. And it's bad news, especially because just one year ago home secretary Priti Patel assured that immigration arrangements for musicians were completely unchanged, and those routes were supposed to operate as they did up until that moment. Like I said before, apparently that is simply not happening anymore after the UK has declined an offer to do so (visa-free tours by musicians to EU countries and viceversa) something that will have tremendous implications for UK musicians wanting to tour in any country of the European Union. 

Obviously every part blames the other. The UK is constantly pressing for ambitious agreements and the EU rejects. And in the middle of it, all of us paying the consequences for something we did not vote for (except British citizens of course). Until the day an agreement is made, if bands could go on tour today they would have to add significant extra costs and annoying paperwork. And given how many small and even medium bands go on tour with break even deal models (they are paid to play if the show sells a significant amount of tickets) this could be a serious stop for the exchange of culture. Meaning, we’ll stop having many of those concerts we used to go on a weekly basis at small and medium size venues. And of course, the same applies the other way around, although it's more the UK bands coming to Europe. Will this mean that we’ll start seeing significant reduction of crew teams? Will this increase price tickets? Will artists start hiring European musicians to play in Europe? We’ll see.

Everyone loves music. Our best memories are connected in a way or another to it but I honestly have the feeling that many of us and primarily the politicians are taking culture and especially music for granted (with some rare exceptions). Not many seem to be realizing the damage this necessary industry is taking. And it's not only about the musicians, it's about hundreds of professionals around that are just being forgotten and forced to recycle themselves to other jobs and it's not gonna be easy to get them back. It's already time to say enough. This affects to all of us so let’s take care of our culture and regarding Brexit let’s push to guarantee a visa-free for both Europeans and UK musicians in order to ensure that culture remains untouched.

Cover photograph by Matias Altbach