How 2 Tour Internationally

Expert: Jamila Al-Yousef

Musician, Theater maker, Festival Curator, and anti-discrimination Consultant

Touring internationally as an independent artist can feel overwhelming, especially when you don’t have an agency, big budgets or existing industry connections. This workshop shares practical strategies and lived experiences on how to build sustainable international networks, book your own concerts abroad, and create opportunities beyond traditional music industry pathways.

At the same time, international touring can be deeply joyful and transformative. It creates spaces for cultural exchange, solidarity, inspiration, and meaningful human connection across borders. The workshop also reflects on the fact that being able to travel and tour internationally is a privilege that is shaped by passports, visas, financial resources, and global inequalities.

Together, we will look at topics such as:

• international networking and relationship building
• booking DIY tours and concerts abroad
• showcase festivals and conference strategies
• financing & funding opportunities (i.e. Initiative Musik export funding, Goethe Institute, BMC Music Ambassador, residencies…)

Jamila Al-Yousef is a Berlin-based cultural studies scholar, musician, theater maker, festival curator, and anti-discrimination consultant. With her internationally touring band Jamila & The Other Heroes she blends psychedelic desert rock with a message of collective liberation. Born in East Berlin on the day the Wall fell and shaped by her Palestinian heritage, her music channels revolutionary energy and diasporic stories into songs of liberation, empowerment, and healing. Singing in Arabic and English, she creates concerts that are wild, tender, and deeply political rituals of unity and defiance. Jamila combines her artistic practice with social justice work, focusing on power sharing, anti racism, empowerment, and awareness. As a trainer and consultant of cultural organizations, clubs and festivals, she works with a power-critical and trauma-informed approach and centers the perspectives of those affected.