Pay It Forward Fund Will Help Tour Health For Artists & Crew

The latest news from MITC for you;

The Music Industry Therapist Collective CIC (MITC) has launched a £272,000, Pay It Forward Fund: An industry-financed occupational health programme that provides free at source, Tour Health packages to artists and crew on small and mid-scale tours.

The initial £272,000 ($370,000 USD) will support 150 touring teams over a three-year pilot period. The fund will provide qualifying small to mid-scale tours access to specialist, preventative support that might otherwise be beyond their budget.

Pay it Forward is generously funded by a broad spectrum of organisations from across the live entertainment industry. They include AEG International, d&b audiotechnik, Fly By Nite, Live Nation, Lockton, The Team and Universal Pixels, as well as Radiohead’s Philip Selway and Live Free 999, the charitable foundation established by Carmela Wallace, mother of the late artist Juice WRLD.

What unites these supporters is an understanding of both the rewards of touring and the pressures it can place on the people who make it possible. To those working in touring, the industry can provide extraordinary careers and opportunities that are creatively fulfilling and professionally rewarding. But it’s also a hugely demanding environment. Long periods away from home, irregular schedules, jumping time zones and the intensity of moving from one venue or show to the next can place significant pressure on the people who make the touring machine work.

Often, larger tours will have bigger teams and greater access to dedicated health or welfare support. However, on smaller tours, people may be fulfilling several roles simultaneously, while working within tighter margins and with fewer opportunities for rest and recovery. Pay It Forward is designed to address that gap. By giving smaller touring teams access to preventative Tour Health support, these recognised pressures can be addressed before they start to take a toll.

Each package includes 10 Tour Check-Ins; a 90-minute occupational health consultation – for tour and production managers – with MITC Touring Welfare Officer Sascha Heeney, who supported Dua Lipa’s Radical Optimism tour team; a Healthy Touring workshop; resources to support performance, communication and collaboration; and access to MITC’s audiobook, Touring and Mental Health: The Music Industry Manual, featured in Rough Trade’s Books of the Year 2023.

Tour Check-Ins are confidential conversations with qualified mental health practitioners, who understand the realities of music and touring. Available online, around the clock, and in several languages, they can be used by any member of the touring team to decompress after a difficult day. Touring professionals can think through a decision, talk about work or relationships, deal with tension within the team, reflect upon coping habits or plan what comes next. No diagnosis, referral or previous experience of therapy is required.

Tamsin Embleton, founder of MITC, says: “People who tour are often highly skilled and resourceful. They’re used to managing lots of moving parts, adapting quickly and solving problems on the fly. Pressure itself isn’t necessarily the problem; touring is demanding by nature, and that’s part of what can make it feel rewarding. The difficulty comes when stress becomes chronic, without enough support to buffer its effects or enough opportunity to recover.

“The Pay It Forward Fund is about making specialist support accessible to tours working within tight budgets, but it’s also about moving beyond the idea that support should only be sought when crisis hits. We want to help forward-thinking teams develop the skills to manage pressure, recognise when something is beginning to take a toll, and intervene effectively before things start to snowball.”

Alongside providing funded access, the campaign’s wider aim is to establish occupational health on tour as part of normal professional practice.

“Just as touring professionals maintain their trucks and buses, equipment and systems before they fail, the people who keep the show moving should benefit from the same foresight and planning,” said Laura Newton, MITC’s Operations Director.