Touring Green - Sustainable Music Projects in Europe

The Goethe-Institut's pilot project “Touring Green – Sustainable Music Projects in Europe” supports professional artists living and working in Germany to develop concepts for sustainable travel in music and implement them within the framework of a resource-efficient music journey.

For musicians, international musical exchange with collaborators is an essential element of their work. The Goethe-Institut’s task is to enable and to support this. Personal encounters at home and abroad are only possible when travelling, but touring can have a considerable impact on the environmental impact of every musician.

In the debate on sustainability, the Music Division would like to stimulate a discussion on how resource-efficient touring can be enabled and what future sustainably planned music tours can look like. The call for proposals aims to help musicians plan “slow” tours, thus counteracting fast and short-lived touring through appropriate concepts. Above all, the parameter of “time on location” and its relationship to the journey is crucial. A longer stay in the host country, for example, means a smaller climate footprint as well as a more intense experience for musicians and their collaborators. Sustainable music projects should not involve any loss in musical quality or limits to creative ideas, but should lead to new forms of planning.

The funding is aimed at professional musicians and composers who live and work in Germany. After a successful application, funding is provided in the form of a lump sum to cover all costs incurred, such as train tickets, accommodation, food, technical equipment and gear. Projects in South-Eastern European countries are particularly welcome.

“Touring Green” is designed as a temporary pilot project with deliberately very open funding guidelines in order to gain experience in slow touring.

PREREQUISITES FOR ELIGIBILITY:

• The applicant musician or ensemble must work professionally.
• The applicant musician or ensemble must live and do most of its artistic work in Germany.
• The duration of the tour is at least 10 and at most 21 days. At least two non-German-speaking European countries should be toured during this time.
• The number of persons funded is limited to a maximum of four.
• Only projects that can be realised without air travel will be funded.
• The focus of the journey should be sustainability and musical exchange with local collaborators.
• Willingness to document the journey, to report about the experiences in a final report and to participate in an evaluation of the funding programme.

Deadline: 31 March 2022