Touring Green – Sustainable Music Projects in Europe

The pilot project “Touring Green – Sustainable Music Projects in Europe” supports professional artists in developing concepts for sustainable travel in music and implementing 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.

Payments:

  • Solo artists: Flat-rate funding of 150 €/day for all costs incurred
  • Groups: 150 €/day for one artist and 100 €/day for all other travelling and actively involved artists (max. 4 persons)

The following are not eligible for funding:

  • Projects involving amateur musicians
  • Travel for mainly commercial or touristic purposes (promotional tours, concert tours, appearances at trade fairs and the like)
  • Benefits
  • Participation in congresses, symposia and competitions
  • School or training-related projects (scholarships, dissertations, research work)
  • Development aid projects
  • Travels to German-speaking countries abroad

Required documents:

Submission of a meaningful project description incl.
  • Brief and detailed description of the project
  • Letter describing your motivation
  • As detailed a description as possible of the planned itinerary, the expected travel period and duration, places to be visited, institutions, people, etc.
  • Information on musical collaborators in the destination countries
  • Sustainability concept for the journey and the stay on location
  • If applicable, outline of possible interfaces with the responsible Goethe-Institut abroad

Deadlines:

Applications can be submitted on an ongoing basis from now until 31.03.2022.
The journey must be completed by 30.06.2022 at the latest (date of return journey).
Submission of the application at the latest 6 weeks before the start of the journey.

More Information:


Please take note of our privacy policy.

 
Applications must be submitted by the Cultural Funding Application.

To the application form