Chamber and committees

Exiting the EU and the ending free movement of people poses a range of challenges to international arts and cultural events in Scotland. The organisers of Celtic Connections – as well as other international arts and cultural events – have raised concerns that introducing new visa requirements could create major financial and logistical problems for festivals, make it more difficult to attract performers from outside the UK, and could ultimately cause them to become less international.

The UK’s current visa system already puts in place significant cost and administrative barriers for non-EU artists bringing their work to festivals in Scotland. The current process is often lengthy, complex and costly. These issues could be exacerbated if the same process is applied to performers from the EU/EEA.

Organisers of international arts and cultural events in Scotland have reported problems with the system, including:

- Home Office decision-makers refusing visas because they do not believe that the person seeking entry is a genuine visitor.

- Visitor visa evidence requirements being too onerous, acting as a deterrent to participants.

- Salary conditions for sponsored work visas are restrictive and can impair festivals’ access to international participants invited to the UK by wider culture sector organisations.

- Duration of the Permitted Paid Engagement route is capped at one month, and the system does not allow festivals to invite young or emerging artists under this route.

- Passport retention is unfeasible for touring artists - few can manage their touring schedule while passports are being held for three weeks for visa processing and workarounds such as duplicate passports, passport retention or priority processing fees are unaffordable.

- UK festivals cannot sustain the costs of sponsorship responsibilities for temporary worker Tier 5 visas. Although this would mean lower evidence requirements for individuals applying, the overhead is not realistic for festivals with multiple participants entering the UK in a concentrated period for short-duration events.

International connectedness, and the reputation of Scotland as a welcoming, outward-looking country is essential to Scotland’s festivals, and exiting the EU also jeopardises this.

In 2017, Celtic Connections stated that it had to reduce the number of American and European acts in its line-up by around 20% following the EU referendum due to the impact of the weak pound on the festival’s buying power. Creative Producer Donald Shaw has also indicated that Scottish Musicians will find it more difficult to perform in Europe following EU exit.

The Scottish Government shares the concerns expressed by the organisers of international arts and cultural events in Scotland, and has regularly raised concerns with the UK Government around the challenges for international artists and performers coming to participate in festivals.