The government must work with the EU and individual member states to support artists looking to perform in Europe, MPs have said in a new report.
The report was published by the Culture, Media and Sport (CMS) Committee today (Monday 15 June), and highlights the ever-increasing financial struggles artists are forced to contend with post-Brexit.
It arrives after an evidence session was held with representatives from the performing arts and music sectors, which was held as part of the State of Play inquiry. During the hearing, Kate Nash shared that while once touring Europe used to be profitable, her last run of dates in the EU had actually left her with losses of over £25,000.
The committee also heard that younger and rising acts in particular were being hit hard, prompting questions about the broader impacts on working-class artists and crews. The dire consequences of Brexit on touring artists were similarly highlighted as far back as 2022, when industry leaders shared that the complications of leaving the European Union were “strangling the next generation of UK talent in the cradle”.
As such, the report calls for the UK to re-engage with cultural cooperation programme Creative Europe, and its proposed successor AgoraEU, which is hoped to restore artist access to travel funding.
Alongside this, the committee recommended that negotiations be held over customs barriers, short-term touring, and the rules around transporting goods within the same country by a transport operator based in a different country.
Chair of the CMS Committee Caroline Dinenage said British musicians and actors were up against “a whole range of new hoops to jump through when looking to take their shows on tour and perform in the EU”, adding: “The impact on livelihoods is being felt not just by established performers, but also by the stars of tomorrow who are being denied the opportunities to further their careers like others before them.”
Dinenage went on to say the efforts were not about “renegotiating Brexit”, but rather “addressing the issues that weren’t covered off in the first place and finding new ways to support our touring artists”.
“We heard clearly that there is strong demand for our talented performers from audiences across Europe, so it is in the interests of both sides to work together to find a solution,” she continued.
“The government can also do much more at home to reduce the burden on touring performers and provide them with the advice and support they need to shine on the world stage.”
UK Music Chief Executive Tom Kiehl also noted that this month marks 10 years since the EU referendum, and said the subsequent decade saw “uncertainty for the music industry, which then became the disaster of a deal between the UK and EU which totally forgot the needs of touring musicians, performers and cultural workers.
“The House of Commons CMS Committee are to be congratulated in taking this crucial moment to reinforce the importance of touring the EU.
“We look to the Government to respond positively to their recommendations, uphold its manifesto commitments to sort this out and continue to work with Cultural Exchange Coalition to build a better foundation for a greater future for creativity across the UK and EU.”
Back in January, Manchester band Witch Fever revealed that they were left “broke” after only a two month stint 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]”.
Earlier this year, Green Party leader Zack Polanski sat down with NME and argued that Brexit had been a “catastrophe, economically, socially, culturally and around the arts”, and told us he felt 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.