UK artists will no longer need visas for short-term tours in Spain

LIVE announced the new update to Spain's touring rules yesterday (16 November), revealing that LIVE, along with the Association for British Orchestras (ABO) and their Spanish counterparts Asociación Promotores Musicales (as well as "key industry players such as Live Nation Spain") have achieved a new deal with the Spanish government that means UK musicians will no longer need visas for tours in Spain that are less than 90 days.

Spain - along with Croatia, Greece, Portugal, Bulgaria, Romania, Malta and Cyprus - didn't immediately follow suit with the 19 other EU countries that relaxed their visa-free touring rules back in August, but the decision from the Spanish government means UK musicians can finally tour the country, which "represents the fifth largest live music market in the world", without having to endure the arduous. and expensive visa application process.

Craig Stanley, Chair of the LIVE Touring Group, said, "We are delighted that our hard work has paid off and the Spanish Government has agreed to lift the restrictive visa process for touring artists, ending the complicated and painful process of expensive visa applications. A whole host of people came together both here and in Spain to fix this situation and this shows what we can achieve as an industry when we work together."

"However, that is still only one small part of a very large problem affecting our ability to tour in the round," Stanley continued. "We are calling on the Government to follow our lead and urgently work to fix the rules with the remaining member states so that we can continue to tour across the entirety of the European Union."

Mark Pemberton, Director, Association of British Orchestras added, "The ABO is delighted the Spanish Government has introduced a visa waiver for live performance. We have already heard from member orchestras that had had to go through the painful and expensive process of securing visas for their musicians these past months, and this will be welcome news for those orchestras with impending tours. It means we can continue to bring the best of British music-making to Spain."