Musicians: brace yourselves for the hidden costs of EU touring the Brexiteers never mentioned
Festival: if you’re a musician who regularly performs at EU events, you can kiss those big crowds goodbye – unless you’re getting paid big bucks for your performance.
As a musician myself – even though I’ve never toured in Europe – this is infuriating.
I know musicians who do gig on the Continent, and the new costs triggered by Brexit are likely to make it impractical for them to continue.
Wasn’t Brexit supposed to make it easier for us all to ply our trades? Do you know anybody who actually and materially benefits from January 1 onwards?
Here’s Howard Goodall to explain the bad news:
Dear fellow musicians, performers, technicians etc. Here’s a thread about how our lives are going to change re touring/working in the EU in 50 days time. Think of it as a kind of Bad News Advent calendar. Here goes 1/
— Howard Goodall (@Howard_Goodall) November 11, 2020
To work or do a gig you’re going to need a work visa, just like you do for the USA. But here’s the thing. Work permits & visas and the conditions attached are a matter not for the EU but for the member states themselves 3/
— Howard Goodall (@Howard_Goodall) November 11, 2020
So you’ll need to get a work permit for every country you’re intending to work or gig in and the rules are often different, as are the rules on eg taxation of that work (eg Spain has a withholding tax, France does not) 5/
— Howard Goodall (@Howard_Goodall) November 11, 2020
[Fun fact: in Germany, you need to verify a contract to work there, the verification needs a passport, and the new Brexity-Blue UK passports are incompatible with the ID system they use. Cheers, Brexit Govt] 7/
— Howard Goodall (@Howard_Goodall) November 11, 2020
You get an ATA Carnet from the London Chamber of Commerce & Industry and they cost £351.60 each (or £562.80 for their express 2 hr service) and they last 12 months 9/
— Howard Goodall (@Howard_Goodall) November 11, 2020
Oh and if your (valuable, old) instrument contains materials derived from any endangered species, eg ivory from elephants, you will need either a FED0172 certificate or a CITES form too, from the APHA Centre in Bristol 12/
— Howard Goodall (@Howard_Goodall) November 11, 2020
Ditto dancers, actors, singers, designers, technicians etc 14/
— Howard Goodall (@Howard_Goodall) November 11, 2020
And crossing from a non-EU country to an EU one by lorry you’ll need to factor in a long-ish wait at the border. Pre-Brexit average at Dover-Calais was a few minutes per vehicle, Ukraine to Poland (non-EU to EU) anything from 1 to 32 hours. 16/
— Howard Goodall (@Howard_Goodall) November 11, 2020
When you get across the channel, turn data roaming on your phone OFF, swiftly, or you’ll get stung for big bills now we’ve withdrawn from the EU’s roam-anywhere deal 18/
— Howard Goodall (@Howard_Goodall) November 11, 2020
(If you want to take advantage of the EU’s cheap & easy roaming by cannily buying a burner in eg France with a French number, you’ll need a registered French address to do so fyi) 20/
— Howard Goodall (@Howard_Goodall) November 11, 2020
That’s because Frosty & his Brexit Overlords in Downing St are WAY more concerned about fishing, an industry over ONE HUNDRED TIMES smaller than the Creative sector. 22/
— Howard Goodall (@Howard_Goodall) November 11, 2020
Final thought. Everything we do as creative artists – everything – is about removing the barriers between people. We do collaboration, reducing conflict, bringing people closer, unity, friendship, enjoyment & shared experience 24/
— Howard Goodall (@Howard_Goodall) November 11, 2020
All correct apart from one Carnet can be used to contain ALL the instruments an absolute nightmare to get all those serial numbers AND ALL the instruments & musicians would have to travel together if you use 1 Carnet. So far from ideal completely unnecessary & a total step back!
— Mark Moreve (@markmoreve) November 12, 2020
Last summer, the arts/culture charity I currently chair – Radnor Fringe Festival – ran an online version of its annual event because Covid-19 made a physical festival with thousands of people standing around shoulder-to-shoulder impossible. It was a huge success.
We’re currently working on making the online festival an ongoing thing, with new content by musicians, artists, actors and so on, to be funded initially by donations.
Personally, I see this as one way for UK musicians to get their sounds out to the Continent while the Brexit insanity holds sway.
It won’t be the same as being there at a gig, but it might be the only cost-effective way of being heard.
Have YOU donated to my crowdfunding appeal, raising funds to fight false libel claims by TV celebrities who should know better? These court cases cost a lot of money so every penny will help ensure that wealth doesn’t beat justice.
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I used to deal with ATA Carnets before we went into the EU and afterwards, when dealing with non-EU countries like Switzerland and Norway. They are not only expensive but a total pain in the ass with lots of conditions attached. The goods that go out of the country have to be the same that comes back so if something breaks you can’t just replace it…I remember shipping some gear to the USA for a band, they smashed up a guitar and brought a different one back, caused a nightmare, delays and fines. I have been warning people ever since the referendum was first mentioned that it would cause a ton of problems/delays/expense with shipping stuff around the EU.
Well musicians, actors, technicians and in fact everyone who works in the arts – don’t bother trying to travel to the EU because the costs will be astronomical. Instead stay at home and thank the fascist tories for creating little england an island wherein no one can leave whether it is to work abroad temporarily or just for a short holiday!