Touring the EU After Brexit: Carnets, Visas, and Costs

EU touring got materially harder for UK artists after Brexit, and the effect shows in the numbers: UK artists touring the EU in summer 2023 were down around 32% compared with the 2017-19 period.

It is, however, entirely doable. The requirements split into two problems — people, and equipment — and the second is the one that catches tours out.

People: visas and work permits

The good news. Most EU countries now offer visa and work-permit-free routes for UK performers and other creative professionals, typically for short-term work.

The catch is that it's country by country. There's no single EU-wide rule, the conditions vary — length of stay, whether the work is paid, whether you're supporting or headlining — and a route that works for Germany may not work identically for Spain.

Two things to check for every country on the routing, well in advance:

• The permit-free short-term work conditions for performers, and whether your specific activity qualifies.

• Schengen day limits. Non-EU nationals are generally limited to 90 days in any rolling 180 across the Schengen area as a whole. A long European run can bump into this even where each individual country is happy.

Equipment: the carnet question

This is where tours actually get stopped.

An ATA Carnet is a document allowing temporary, duty-free and tax-free import of professional equipment into participating countries for up to a year. It's effectively a passport for your gear, and it must be stamped correctly on the way out and back.

When you need one:

• Generally not for portable instruments carried personally by the musician — these can usually go through the "nothing to declare" channel.

• Generally yes for non-portable equipment, and for anything travelling in a truck or van as freight rather than as personal baggage.

That distinction is the whole thing. A guitarist flying with a guitar is in a very different position from a band driving a van full of backline.

The move to digital carnets

Worth knowing if you're planning ahead: from June 2026 the UK and EU are transitioning to digital eATA carnets, with a parallel period where both paper and digital are in use running through 2027.

Practically, that means checking what the issuer and the borders on your route expect at the time you travel, rather than assuming last year's process. During a transition, the answer changes.

Costs to budget

Carnet fees are set by the issuing bodies rather than by government, and vary — some countries subsidise them. Budget for the carnet fee itself plus a security deposit or bond, which is typically based on the value of the equipment listed and is returned once the carnet is properly discharged.

Also budget for: the time to compile the equipment schedule (every item, with serial numbers and values), currency and payment differences, and the very real possibility of extra time at borders.

The practical advice

• Start early. Carnets and country checks are not a fortnight's work.

• List everything, accurately. An item played on stage that isn't on the carnet is a problem at the exit border, not the entry one.

• Get the stamps. An undischarged carnet means losing the deposit. This is the most common expensive mistake and it happens at 4am when everyone's tired.

• Confirm the rules per country, close to the date. This area has been changing continuously since 2021 and continues to.

Plan the run somewhere you can see it

Musavise's tour planner holds the routing with each show's advancing checklist, schedule, day-of contacts and costs, flags runs with too many consecutive show days, and totals what the tour actually made against what it cost — so the admin around a European run has a home rather than living in a group chat.

This isn't legal or immigration advice, and requirements change; check current guidance for each country on your routing before you travel.

All of it lives in one free Musavise account — free means free, within honest limits, and your data exports whenever you want it. Create your free account; it takes about two minutes.