Touring and export

Anchor gigs, not subsidised trips

Flying an artist plus a band to any market makes most offers unviable before anyone plays a note. Work visa costs alone can consume a budget. That is not a failure, it is the maths working exactly as it always does.

The fix is not more subsidy per flight. It is an anchor: one gig that covers the flights, then you route the other markets around it while you are already there. If you are flying to one city, you should be playing three, plus a showcase in a major market, plus press.

European mobility money exists, and the structure is the lesson: these schemes fund a ROUTE, not a trip — a run of dates across several cities, not one flight to one show. (Amounts and rules change every round and most European schemes require an EU-country resident, so check the current call rather than any figure you were quoted.)

Make the act cheap to move

TWO PEOPLE AND A LOCAL DJ

Some acts tour as two performers who pick up a DJ in the market — two flights instead of eight, and the show still works.

HAVE A SMALL FORMAT READY

Duo, trio and full-band versions of the same show, each with its own price. Buyers pick the one their budget allows instead of saying no.

EVERY DATE IS A MEDIA BLITZ

Press, radio, TV, buyer meetings, a co-write, a workshop. If you flew there for one concert, you wasted the flight.

FILM IT WITH THE CROWD IN SHOT. Talent buyers need to see a room going crazy, not a well-lit solo performance. Film every hometown show this way — it costs nothing and it is the most valuable sales asset you will ever own.

The showcase conference map

CIRCULART, MEDELLÍN

two hours away, has run a free open call, strong for Caribbean artists. The lowest-friction first step here. It is its own event and is NOT part of Medellín Music Week, which is separate and in a different month.

WOMEX

juried showcase; global touring follows selection. An Atlantic, Spanish-speaking, Afro-Atlantic context suits this island's repertoire.

APAP

New York, mid-January. It calls itself one of the largest and most influential gatherings in the performing arts field, which is the honest version. globalFEST has run alongside it at Lincoln Center; check for a current edition before planning around it.

MUNDIAL MONTRÉAL

juried, in November. It describes itself as a stepping stone to national and international careers. (The claim that it leads directly to Montreal Jazz Festival bookings is repeated a lot and is not supported by anything either organisation publishes.)

FIM GDL, GUADALAJARA

run by the Universidad de Guadalajara and held in FEBRUARY, which puts its call months before that. Still widely called “FIMPRO”, which is the old name. The Latin American entry point, and the natural corridor for Papiamentu and Spanish-language repertoire.

JAZZAHEAD!, BREMEN — the Pop-Up Village stand is the cheapest credible national presence in the European calendar.

ATLANTIC MUSIC EXPO, CABO VERDE

smaller, and the single most relevant model for this island.

LATIN BILLBOARD and LAMC

Miami and New York. Good for people; harder to justify unfunded.

Application fees are low but they are NOT all the same — see the fee breakdown under Your first 90 days, and note that the real cost at several of these is delegate registration, not the application. Apply to everything and let funding kick in only after selection — that removes the selection-panel problem entirely.

The lane nobody here is using: US presenters

There are thousands of nonprofit presenters across the United States — performing arts centres, festivals, university series, city cultural divisions. (Nobody publishes a reliable total: APAP, the field's own association, has roughly 1,600 member organisations, which is a floor and not a count.)

Public and foundation money exists specifically to bring international artists to the US, and the PRESENTER applies for it, not you. They fund culture and narrative, not streaming metrics, so Papiamentu is an asset in this lane and never a barrier.

This is a completely separate economy from commercial pop — different buyers, different money, different criteria. These people are actively looking for what this island has and they cannot find it. The entry point is APAP in New York in January, where European export offices already sponsor their own showcases.

Every video below was checked against the channel that published it.

• WOMEX Juried showcase; global touring tends to follow selection.
• jazzahead! Bremen. The Pop-Up Village stand is the cheapest credible national presence in Europe.
• Mundial Montréal Juried showcase, November.
• APAP (New York) One of the largest performing-arts gatherings. The US presenter lane.
• globalFEST Has run alongside APAP in January — check for a current edition.
• FIM GDL (Guadalajara) Formerly FIMPRO — the old name redirects. The Latin American entry point.
• Circulart (Medellín) Two hours away, has run a free open call. Note the year in the URL — the site root is still an old placeholder.
• Medellín Music Week A SEPARATE Medellín event in a different month — often confused with Circulart. Neither one's site mentions the other.
• Atlantic Music Expo Cabo Verde. The single most relevant model for this island.