'Every barrier in the world went up overnight': Music festivals call for help with Brexit issues

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After years of cancellations thanks to COVID, this summer sees the return of music festivals to the UK - but after leaving the EU, those involved with British events are facing challenges and calling for support.

As well as increasing costs and paperwork for British bands wanting to travel across the Channel, EU bands wanting to come and play UK festivals face the same barriers.

"If somebody's on a European tour, normally they would have used the UK as a stop-off, bring all their equipment, bring their set, do one of these festivals and then head off on to their next destination," she says. "When bands head out, they have to join the queues with the truckers so, even when it isn't the chaos we've recently seen at Dover, we can be waiting hours," says Ms Jones.

Alan Hungerford, whose company, Freight Minds, provides touring logistical and freight support to artists such as Queen,"Let's say, you're doing a festival in Portugal on Saturday, to fly a charter jet into the UK on a Sunday for another festival is now incredibly hard work," he says. "British customs staff don't seem to have been trained properly on how to process carnets," adds Hungerford.

"So skilled staff, like riggers, lighting engineers, sound engineers, techs who had the experience in putting all of this on, left the industry, meaning you're losing that skillset at the high end of the spectrum.""The staff who are needed for the day in, day out running of an event, setting up, the cleaners, security, the people who you rely on to run an event like that were coming over from Europe," she says."They are just not there now.

"The combination of COVID and Brexit has wiped out a lot of people that previously had jobs within the music sector or the entertainment sector," he says. Ms Davies-Jones also says a seasonal worker programme should be introduced to ensure festivals can bring the staff over from the EU like before.

 

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The UK Government, not wanting to 'appear' weak or dilute their 'threat' of no deal, rejected an EU suggestion for permits for touring bands, which would have cut the red tape. Problems are entirely the fault of No.10's Brexit policy... thanks Boris, thanks Lord Frost.

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