With Brexit continuing to have a devastating impact on UK artists, the government has pledged “full commitment” to solving the crisis and breaking down barriers to musicians needing to tour Europe.
After the music industry were essentially dealt a “no deal” Brexit with an end to visa-free travel for UK artists and crew wishing to work, “catastrophic” predictions of the sector being “screwed over” and facing an existential threat to the talent pipeline have come into fruition.
A report by the Musicians’ Union in 2024 found that 75 per cent of had seen a decline in bookings in the EU since Brexit, with 79 per cent unable to make up for the loss of work elsewhere and the majority claiming that touring in Europe was simply “no longer financially viable”. A recent study by UK Music found that the impact of Brexit on touring was only “worsening” with the rate of growth down by more than half on 2023 – despite “record-breaking” income reported by the upper echelons.
Alongside UK artists being booked for European festivals falling by nearly a third, the body argued: “Reduced touring opportunities not only directly affect artists and crew unable to tour, but also songwriters who see reduced royalties where their works are no longer being performed by UK artists at concerts and festivals in EU countries.”
This comes with the perfect storm of increased touring costs, more red tape and admin around carnets and crossing borders, less chances to be heard, massive dips in income, and a huge impact on mental health. The pressure on artists and crew losing opportunities in the UK’s closest neighbouring countries has only been intensified by the ongoing threat to grassroots venues and jobs at home and “the complete collapse of touring“.
While making the case for the ticket levy to save the grassroots, Wolf Alice’s Joff Oddie told Parliament last year that the rising costs of being an artist, combined with venues closing and the loss of touring opportunities brought about by post-Brexit complications, meant that “one of the things we risk is that music becomes a middle and upper class sport”.
Featured Artists Coalition CEO David Martin, who launched the the Let The Music Move campaign alongside the Music Managers Forum over five years ago, told NME of their mission “to highlight the barriers Brexit had created for UK artists and to alert politicians to the damage that would be inflicted to the standing of the British music industry if issues remained unresolved”.
“These were not merely scare tactics – they were credible predictions of the direction of travel,” Martin argued. “They are no longer just predictions.
“In the last decade, the UK’s share of the global music market has halved. British artists have fallen out of worldwide album charts, streaming year-end statistics and off the billing at major festivals across Europe and subsequently, the world.”
He continued: “The phenomenon is not restricted to overseas consumption, it is also impacting UK artists at home as the knock on effect is stagnating domestic growth. The share of UK-origin music in the UK charts has reached a historic low.
“If artists are unable to tour, grow audiences, hone their craft and spread their music in their largest neighbouring market, they are effectively hamstrung. While I remain proud about the exceptional talent that exists in the UK, and there are green shoots of hope, our artists are operating in conditions that are fixed against them, not an environment designed for them to excel.”
Martin argued that for the last six years, the clear evidence has spoken for itself while the need for immediate action only grows. “You don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows,” he added. “The government was elected to power on a manifesto that committed to fixing the issue and helping our artists. Without urgent intervention, we risk losing our hard-earned place as a world leader in music.”
Today, #CarryOnTouring alongside @WeAreTheMU were invited to a roundtable discussion with The delegation from the European Parliament’s Culture and Education Committee, held at Europe House, London. The meeting discussed the difficulties faced by creatives and support crews pic.twitter.com/lT1Zp77gPh
— Carry On Touring Campaign (@CarryonTouring_) February 18, 2026
Now, Culture Minister Ian Murray has promised the “full commitment” of the UK government to remove the barriers to touring the EU and UK. Speaking at the inaugural event of the Cultural Exchange Coalition (CEC) in Brussels last week (Wednesday March 24), Murray said there was “very much a will to try and find a way through this”.
“There is a real political will both from the UK side and from the EU side to try and find some solutions to this because we have heard this is not just a UK issue, this is a European-wide issue,” Murray said in a speech at the launch of the CEC in the European Parliament. “There’s very much a will to try and find a way through this – and to do it as quickly as we possibly can.”
Murray agreed that work to save the ecosystem of live music was necessary or else “the whole industry is going to collapse”.
“We know how difficult it is in terms of touring and how difficult it is in terms of costs and the additional costs have become prohibitive,” he went on. “So, there’s a full commitment from our side in terms of the UK government to fulfil the commitment in the EU and UK Summit to fulfil the aspirations of the Cultural Compass and to make sure we can have all our artists – whether it be UK artists in Europe or European artists in the UK – as seamless as possible.”
UK Music Chief Executive Tom Kiehl welcomed the renewed pledge, but said that we needed real action rather than just words. “While the UK may have left the EU it is still very much part of Europe, yet the current deal is not the best that we can do,” he said. “I urge the Government and Commission to build on this positive moment and strengthen the Common Understanding between the UK and EU on cultural exchange and touring artists.”
Former ballet dancer and member of the EU-UK Parliamentary Partnership Assembly Baroness Bull pointed to the “now clear evidence that the failure to include provision for touring artists and crews in the post-Brexit arrangements” leading to “artists and audiences across the entirety of Europe are missing out”.
“Not just on the cultural, social and economic benefits of intercontinental touring, but also the artistic and technical innovations that arise from cultural exchange,” she continued. “MPs, Peers and MEPs on the Parliamentary Partnerships have repeatedly urged the Partnership Council to resolve this, and the collective voice of the Cultural Exchange Coalition adds valuable sector perspective and evidence to these calls.
“I hope that the new tone of optimism present at the first meeting will translate into the action so urgently required – for this generation of artists and for the talent of the future.”
Hosting MEP Hannes Heide, meanwhile, highlighted how “we must not forget is every solution is not only for the guitar player or the drummer on stage” but also “about technicians, engineers, truckers, Nightliner driver, merchandiser”, adding: “It shows the whole ecosystem and how many people are contributing and are part of it.”
Speaking to NME towards the end of last year, Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport Lisa Nandy said that the government had made “a big leap forwards” towards “breaking down the barriers for touring artists.”
“It has obviously had a huge impact on artists here in the UK, but it has had an impact across the whole of the EU,” she said. “We think it’s holding the industry back as a whole, and it’s holding our economies back.”
Asked about the chances of a meaningful breakthrough in 2026, she replied: “We think it’s not only in our interests, but in the interests of other countries across the EU. Our sense of that has grown in confidence across these discussions. We’ve heard from musicians unions across the EU who feel very strongly about this issue and they have wasted no time in making their views known to their own respective governments.
“We are confident that there is going to be a breakthrough and that we’ll break down some of these needless barriers that have been erected across Europe.”
Agency owner, manager and consultant Ian Smith has long been campaigning for progress on the issue as part of Carry On Touring. As someone who has been dual-based in the UK and EU in the music industry for some years, working on a number of European festivals and showcase projects, he has “seen firsthand the positive impact of genuine involvement in the creative arts in European projects and the music business”.
“I’ve noted with real sadness that UK artists are excluded from major opportunities,” he told NME, however he spotlighted and welcomed the proactive turn in dialogue from the powers that be. “I’ve seen genuine engagement from our European colleagues and some from decision-makers in Europe over the past months, with the UK government at least moving towards reintroducing Erasmus and taking steps towards enhanced Youth Mobility.
“This gives us hope that we can move forward and remove some of the very real barriers that emerged in the final withdrawal agreement with the EU for creative workers, covering all aspects of the arts and the vital support workers that make this all possible.”
Smith added: “We are doing all we can to lead where we can, encourage and engage with our community in the EU, both practitioners and politicians, but we are working towards further engagement and change. We know it’s slow-going, but the direction of travel is positive, and that’s from recent and ongoing real-world experience.
“What we need more than ever is the UK government to remain positively engaged with the EU to get us to where we need to be.”
Tim Brennan from Carry On Touring launched a petition calling for visa-free travel for touring professionals and artists that amassed nearly 300,000 signatures. He lamented the massive drop of 75 per cent of UK artists touring the EU, which he said has “had a massive effect on musicians and crew, with many saying that they had no work during the usually busy autumn period.
“We are also hearing that EU artists wanting to tour the UK are facing serious issues at the borders, with many being refused entry and one even being detained,” told NME. “Even the big equipment suppliers are facing problems applying for EU Schengen D visas for crew members.”
One particularly incident saw crew members sent home during Adele‘s Germany residency due to the rule that UK citizens can’t be in Schengen area for no more than 90 out of every 180 days – posing a huge problems for crew members on long tours.
He called for the UK government to urgently “get a grip of the issues touring professionals are facing in both directions” with “a 100 per cent reciprocal arrangement to bypass the issues around the 90/180 rule, carnets and merchandise” and to ensure that the UK border force are trained properly in how to process incoming EU artists. However, he agreed with that it was encouraging to see positive conversations taking place with “a willingness to solve the post Brexit crisis”.
“The UK government must get a grip on the reality that creative touring, especially for emerging talent, is taking a real hit,” he added. “It’s OK for them to come out and brag about how much money they are putting into the sector, but unless they engage with real talks as a matter of urgency, I fear the issues will never be solved, and that would be a disaster for both EU and UK based artists and crew, and of course the fans.”
Thomas Heher is the founder and festival director of Waves in Vienna. From his European industry perspective, he told NME how the “slight shift in tone since the change of government in the UK” was “welcome”.
“However, for touring artists and crews, the core problem remains unresolved,” said Heher. “The lack of a specific exemption from the 90-in-180-day rule continues to make longer or repeated EU tours practically impossible, especially for emerging and mid-level artists and the crews they depend on.
“What’s important to stress is that this is no longer just a UK problem. From the European side, we clearly see fewer UK artists touring, fewer collaborative projects, and fewer sustained relationships developing. That weakens cultural exchange on both sides and has knock-on effects for venues, festivals, promoters and local economies across Europe. Simply put: touring isn’t working properly under the current arrangements.”
He added: “There is strong goodwill among European partners and parliamentarians to find solutions, but meaningful progress will only happen if the UK government stays actively engaged with the EU at a political level and treats cultural mobility as an economic and cultural priority, not a side issue.
“Without a targeted, reciprocal solution for touring professionals, the situation is unlikely to improve – and upcoming systems like ETIAS risk adding further friction rather than easing it.”
This comes after rising band Witch Fever revealed that they were left “broke” after just two months as a support band on a UK and European tour. “We did two months in arenas and stadiums,” bassist Alex Thompson told 101 Part Time Jobs. “We played Wembley [Arena]. Then we got to the end of it… and found that the pot of money which was going to be our profit is all stuck in withholding taxes across Europe.”
“It’s a Brexit issue,” Thompson added. “We’re basically paying double tax. We pay tax in the UK and we’ve had to pay tax on all of the fees [internationally]”.
Green Party leader Zack Polanski recently explained to NME how “Brexit has been a catastrophe: economically, socially, culturally and around the arts”, arguing that the UK should “rejoin a customs union in the near-term and rejoin the European Union in the longer term”.
The UK’s Labour government’s focus on music has recently seen them put a ban on tickets been touted at overly inflated prices, deliver a U-turn on policies around AI and copyright, and pledge to make the £1 ticket levy on arena and stadium gigs to save the grassroots mandatory unless the amount of shows paying in reaches 50 per cent by the end of June.
