This toolkit will be updated regularly, with new information about the European Parliamentary elections campaign and new advocacy tools for you to use. Should you have any questions contact me at juliette.olivares@live-dma.eu
WHY THIS CAMPAIGN?
On the eve of the 2019 European elections that will take place between the 23rd and the 26th of May, Live DMA wants to raise and assert the values and goals supported by our network. The results of these elections will be a key moment for European cultural policies such as the Europe Creative or the Music Moves Europe programs; now is the time to advocate for informed working conditions and a better recognition of the beneficial actions that take place in live music venues, clubs and festivals.
Help us campaign at your local level to anchor your role as stakeholder for the live music sector among European and national officials. This will help the European Parliament implement informed and beneficial laws or programs concerning the European live music sector.
This Toolkit details our campaign objectives and strategy and gives ideas and inspirations on what you can do to help us and get involved at different levels.
STRATEGY
Our strategy for these European elections is to communicate the values we carry to the political candidates and to assert our role as stakeholders for the live music sector. We want the Members of the European Parliament (MEP) to have a better understanding of the issues the sector and our network faces.
We also want to collect the candidates’ proposals for the live music sector in Europe and obtain commitments from them that they will support the European live music sector.
We will create some content (social media campaign, questionnaires to send to your MEPs candidates, a statement working as a wishlist for the future of our sector) as well as sharing content from other organizations.
Our goal is not to encourage people to vote but rather to communicate on the importance of having a cultural and musical space at the European level in order to reinforce the values that we share. Should you want to incite citizens to vote, you can join other campaigns such as Culture Action Europe or the official European Election campaign (#thistimeimvoting)
Your interest in promoting the campaign
- Support live music at a national and European level. Show that we care!
- The elections are an opportunity for you to get in touch with national representatives working at a European level. Be visible and prepare future advocacy!
Concrete actions
Share our contents in your newsletters and social media
As a first step, you can share the Live DMA posts about the European election on your social media. We will launch our public campaign on 26 March and post regularly about the election (2 times a week in April and more often in May).
Our slogan for this campaign is Support your Local Music Scene. Do not hesitate to use it in your communications!
Use our hashtags in your social media communications and disseminate them to your members. Spread our values to the World Wide Web!
#EUelections2019
#supportyourlocalmusicscene
In the ‘Downloads’ section at the bottom of the page, you will find our campaign’s visuals. Feel free to download them and use them to illustrate your social media accounts.
Get in touch with your candidates
In addition of using our hashtags in your web communications, send to your national Member of European Parliament candidates a list of questions in order to collect their official positions on matters that concerns the live music sector and culture in general (do not forget to translate the questions in your own language if needed!).
List of questions to send to MEP candidates – in English, French, Spanish and German
Here are some template mails that you can use to send to your MEPs candidates. You are of course welcome to create a more personalized mail as it will have a greater, more humane impact on your interlocutor.
Template mail to send to your MEP candidates – ENGLISH
Template mail to send to your MEP candidates – FRENCH
At the bottom of the page, in the ‘Downloads’ section, you will find a list of the MEP candidates per country. The list will be updated regularly with new candidates and contacts. The date of the update will be included in the document’s title: be sure to check the list regularly so you don’t miss any update!
Do not hesitate to contact the MEP candidates through their official social media: Facebook, twitter, professional website…
Whenever a MEP candidate answers these questions, send us their responses right away so we can collect and analyse them. We will then have an inventory of the different candidates’ proposals for the European live music sector that will help us keep track of their commitments and actions once they are elected.
We have also prepared a statement with recommendations for the future of the live music sector in Europe: Amplifying the added value of live music scenes for Europe that you can share to your MEP candidates and partners.
Download Full Statement in PDF
Organize elections-related events
We encourage you to organize European elections – related events in order to trigger a discussion between your members, the grand public and the MEPs candidates on the live music sector. Conferences, radio or television interviews, tweets, videos… use the wide range of media at your disposal to talk about the election! We will of course share such events on our social media.
Here are a few events that will already take place on the matter:
30th of April: LiveKomm. We will attend the second day of this event will focus on Europe, presenting different models of European fundings, a panel on Music Moves Europe and the presence of MEPs.
25th of April: Culture Action Europe’s Live Online Dialogue on the election which will gather MEP candidates and citizens in an online discussion. To register to the Live Online Dialogue, click here.
7th of May, Liveurope Europe Day. This event will take place in the Ancienne Belgique venue in Brussels. Live DMA has collaborated to this event that will gather professionals of the sector, journalists, citizens and politicians to valorize the European musical scene.
CALENDAR
MARCH: Collect the candidates’ programs and content on live music in the elections.
Send the questions and our statement letter to your MEPs candidates. Pass their answers to Live DMA so we can collect, analyze and index them.
26th: Launching of the Live DMA social media campaign for the elections.
APRIL: continue the content collection process. We will also have the press release of the Live DMA statement.
9th: release of Live DMA statement for the future of live music in Europe
25th: Culture Action Europe’s Live online dialogue with MEPs candidates
29 & 30th: Live Komm’s Dialog Pop on live music and Europe.
MAY: disseminate our statement and the questions to the candidates as much as possible before the election days.
7th : Europe Day by Liveurope, with Live DMA
9th: Official date for the Europe Day
23 – 26th: European elections
To send me any information about the campaign (candidates’ answers, question translated, addition of an event in our calendar…) : juliette.olivares@live-dma.eu