The list of countries that have confirmed their participation in the policy includes Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, and Sweden. The UK government then added that formal approaches have been made to Spain, Croatia, Greece, Portugal, Bulgaria, Romania, Malta, and Cyprus to also waive the visa requirement.

Although there remain questions over the prohibitive costs relating to gear and vehicle transport across borders, as well as other tax and duty issues. All of these present the main roadblocks to post-Brexit touring, according to UK musician bodies.

Additionally, musicians in the United Kingdom have expressed concern about Brexit’s impact on touring musicians, specifically regarding potential costly fees surrounding a visa or work permit required to tour the European Union.

The music industry still remains angry in their attitude and are adamant that they still need to do much more. Ian Smith from ‘ukeartswork’ and the #CarryOnTouring campaign argued that the government’s statement was misleading at best and in places “badly wrong”.

He told NME “Yes, we have visa and permit free work in 19 countries – however, what has not been said is that those free periods range from seven days in any one year to 14-30 days to 90 days, all with different reporting requirements. This means reporting said work to either the border police or local authorities prior to entering to work.”

He continued: “I am tired of the spin, and also to be frank this does not help given that there is no visa waiver to eliminate the substantial problem of the 90 in 180 day non-visa nationals rule which all British citizens have to abide by if not legally resident in an EU state and who are beneficiaries of the withdrawal agreement.”

“Let’s make this ultra-clear: the UK government have not created any positive change by ‘engaging’ with individual EU states. They have merely been told the truth of what it means to be a third country non-visa national. Regardless of who said what way back during the negotiations, we need action now and continued action at that!”

This summer in response to these grievances we saw the launch of the #LetTheMusicMove campaign, with artists such as Wolf Alice, IDLES, Poppy Ajudha, and Radiohead among the 200 artists calling upon the UK government to take immediate action in order to resolve the ‘No Deal’ that has landed upon British music – while Elton John actually stated that the government were “philistines” for their approach.

Photo Credit: Raymond Flotat

Dinenage, who is Minister of State for the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, highlighted the EU’s counter proposal after rejecting the UK’s scheme to permit certain activities for short-term business visitors. The counter proposal, which offered a package of visa-free travel for current and future EU members across a wide range of sectors, was “just simply not consistent with the manifesto commitment to take back control of our borders,” according to Dinenage. In response, public figures both from within and outside the music industry have expressed their dismay at Dinenage’s comments. Seasoned touring musician Billy Bragg tweeted: “Maddening: Tories won’t sign up to a deal allowing UK musicians could tour the EU visa free, because it means that EU artists would be able to work visa free in the UK.”

Maddening: Tories won't sign up to a deal allowing UK musicians could tour the EU visa free, because it means that EU artists would be able to work visa free in the UK. "Not consistent with the idea of Brexit that the majority of people in this country voted for" says minister https://t.co/b2VzmcAaRk

— Billy Bragg (@billybragg) February 9, 2021

Physics professor and television personality Brian Cox also expressed his convictions via twitter: “It’s quite an admission that avoiding serious damage to the music industry and our (multi-billion pounds generating, world leading) arts and culture sectors is ‘not consistent with Brexit’.”

It’s quite an admission that avoiding serious damage to the music industry and our (multi-billion pounds generating, world leading) arts and culture sectors is ‘not consistent with Brexit’. https://t.co/doR4BaSEyh

— Brian Cox (@ProfBrianCox) February 9, 2021

As well as Dragon’s Den star Deborah Meaden, who tweeted: “Would it be possible to have a culture Minister who actually fights for the reality of the situation facing those she should be representing, rather than defending the indefensible position which basically boils down to Brexit means Brexit. come on..you did this now make it work.”

After the failure of the Brexit deal proposed by Prime Minister Boris Johnson, to secure visa-free touring for English musicians in the EU last month, a large uproar had erupted, including a petition (now) signed by over 250,000 fans of music who asked for the government to fight for artists’ rights to tour the EU without having to apply for country-specific visas.

The failure of the Brexit deal to secure visa-free touring for English musicians also meant a tremendous rise of costs for currently-touring artists and hindrance for the up-and-coming artists. Both parties blamed each-other for the outcome. Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden blamed the EU, saying, “It was the EU letting down music on both sides of the Channel – not us”, while EU retorted by saying that their own offer of ‘90 days of visa free travel’ was reciprocated by the UK with only ‘30 days of visa free travel’.

Despite the outrage among musicians and the fans and the complaints voiced by the Musicians’ Union, the government rejected the idea to keep pushing for visa-free travel for musicians and just today MP Caroline Dineage stated to “take back control” was of higher precedence. 

Dineage says that wouldn't be "compatible" with the government's manifesto commitment to "take back control" of Britain's borders and that it wouldn't have enabled touring anyway.

— Lewis Goodall (@lewis_goodall) January 19, 2021

Dineage also confirmed that the Brexit negotiation would mean domestic immigration checks and visas to meet for artists to be able to tour in the EU states, while blaming the EU for the rejection of ‘visa-free’ travel for musicians.

Culture minister Caroline Dineage confirms that as a result of Brexit, musicians and arts touring in the EU "will be required to check domestic immigration and minister rules for each member states in which they wish to tour."

That may include a visa or work permit.

— Lewis Goodall (@lewis_goodall) January 19, 2021

Dineage blames the EU, saying they rejected proposals to ensure travel was visa free. The EU has said that's nonsense, that the British proposals would not have solved the visa problem and that they offered a 90 day visa free offer for a range of professions.

— Lewis Goodall (@lewis_goodall) January 19, 2021