Carmichael highlights folk festival in warning over Brexit’s impact on cultural events

J.P. Cormier and Tim Edey impress at the concert in Walls on the opening night of the 2019 Shetland Folk Festival. Photo: Dave Donaldson

Cultural events such as Shetland Folk Festival need greater support to overcome Brexit barriers on touring musicians, Alistair Carmichael has said.

The Orkney and Shetland MP spoke in parliament about the need to mitigate the new obstacles on performers travelling to and from the EU.

Speaking during the debate, Mr Carmichael highlighted the challenges facing the community led organisers of events such as the folk festival.

He said the administrative burden in dealing with visas would be “phenomenal”.

“That cultural growth would be an enormous loss for our communities,” he added.

Speaking after the debate, Mr Carmichael said he was glad the government had started to remedy some of the worst barriers  but  added “there is a long way to go.”

“We are rightly proud of our cultural festivals in the isles which attract performers from across Europe and beyond – and form the basis for our own musicians to make connections elsewhere as well,” he said. 

“We need to work to mitigate these new barriers and keep our cultural enterprises thriving.”