So, the best case scenario for touring in the EU, post-Brexit seems to hinge on the Royal-Blue Sky Thinking that the visa process *might* be simpler than it seems. It *might* end up being less expensive than it seems. What could be even harder, are the “Cabotage” rules (THREAD)

Trucks carrying equipment, can no longer efficiently tour the EU. UK vehicles are now effectively prohibited from making more than 2 stops in any 7 day period. We would normally do roughly 4-5 shows a week.

So even if the visa processes are simplified (which will rely on each EU member state showing the UK the sort of grace and sensibility that the shameful Tory Government clearly have no interest in reciprocating) it won’t be possible to route a tour using UK trucks.

So, as well as having smaller and new artists that are financially fucked, due to the need for carnets and visas that weren’t required before, we also have larger tours, who might have been able to bear the additional costs, but now can’t move equipment due to these regulations.

That means trucking into Europe, cross-loading to European vehicles, sending the UK vehicles home, and then doing it all in reverse at the end. This also devastates the music industry specialist UK freight and transport companies who can no longer provide their services in the EU

The same applies in reverse for European tours coming into the UK. Let’s also not forget the needlessly and vastly increased carbon footprint. Or the additional hours and days spent in queues at borders. Or the import / export duties on merchandise.

Or the visa processes, the costs (whatever they may be) plus the associated admin and applications for each artist, for each crew member, for each country.

So fuck your blue passports, and don’t pretend for a moment that this isn’t a heinous act of cultural, social and financial suicide, a self-imposed quarantine that only benefits the paranoid imagination of the most narrow-minded, perpetuated by selfish, shameless liars.