The UK was Guest of Honour at Central and Eastern Europe's biggest showcase festival — and the future of UK–EU cultural exchange was firmly on the agenda.
From 1 to 3 October, Carry On Touring was in Vienna for Waves Vienna 2026 — the largest showcase festival and conference in Central and Eastern Europe. Our campaign coordinator Gill Morris of Devo Agency and co-founder Ian Smith of UKE Arts Work were there to represent the campaign.
The UK as Guest of Honour
Every year Waves Vienna invites one country to take centre stage, and for its 16th edition that country was the United Kingdom. Alongside more than 100 acts and 50 conference and fringe events across three days, the festival put on a curated showcase of emerging and established UK artists, and panels and talks with leading voices from the UK music industry.
It's a welcome reminder of just how much appetite there is in Europe for British music and culture. But it also throws the problem into sharp relief. Showcases like this are where emerging artists get noticed by European bookers and promoters — and the tours that should follow are exactly what post-Brexit rules make so hard for those same artists and the crews behind them.
Touring on the agenda
Cross-border working was a real theme of this year's conference programme. "Rethink, Rework, Reassemble: The Future of UK–EU Cultural Exchange" looked at mobility, funding, collaboration and the new realities facing artists and organisations working across borders. And "International Mobility for Creative Arts in Challenging Times" tackled the barriers artists and cultural professionals still face around travel, visas and funding.
These are the conversations Carry On Touring has been pushing since the petition, and it matters that they're now happening on stages across Europe, not just in Westminster.
A friend of the campaign at the helm
Waves Vienna is led by festival director Sarah Heher, who sits on the Carry On Touring Advisory Group and is one of our ambassadors. Sarah also co-manages the Austrian Music Export Office and the Vienna Club Commission, and her support has helped keep the touring question in front of European colleagues.
What happens next
Momentum is building. In February we joined the Musicians' Union at a roundtable at Europe House with MEPs from the European Parliament's Culture and Education Committee, and in August we wrote to the Prime Minister with a practical plan to get touring working. As we said in that letter, we're also hoping to bring supporters from across the UK and Europe together for a UK–EU Creative Mobility Summit in Parliament.
If you were at Waves Vienna and want to share your experience of touring between the UK and the EU, we'd love to hear from you — get in touch.