Shortly before the COVID-19 pandemic hit, YOUROPE General Secretary Holger Jan Schmidt and psychologist Prof. Dr. Katja Ehrenberg got together to discuss mental health and stress in the music industry, which eventually led to them publishing their mutual book “Stay SOUND & CHECK Yourself” in December 2020. In the book, Schmidt takes Prof. Ehrenberg behind the scenes of the European live music, festival and event sector. Together with their inspiring interview partners, they turn the spotlights on the people behind the stages.

This book is an in-depth feature of personal insights on stress and mental health in an industry that never sleeps, enriched by background information on the issue as well as suggestions for prevention and intervention. It also reports on the unprecedented challenges during the pandemic for what is usually a very lively scene which suddenly had to pause for an uncertain time.

“Stay SOUND & CHECK yourself” is intended to help ensure a better understanding and the appropriate attention to a topic that has a decisive influence on the success and creativity of the entire industry. It is dedicated to the innumerable people who you normally cannot see, but without whom the stars could never shine on stage.

Working conditions in the music industry can take a toll on mental health

Putting on huge cultural events, being creative in making things happen, meeting the stars and living an alternative lifestyle is in one way most desirable and appealing. In another way, a look behind the scenes shows that working in the live music industry requires an unusual level of commitment, comes with extreme pressure and often poor pay. Many employees and freelancers have personal experiences with mental health issues. As one interviewee put it, “for every Avicii or Keith Flint, there are a thousand promoters or cable guys who have a similar problem.”

They remain mostly invisible, though without them, no one would shine on stage. The psychological effects of such demanding yet fulfilling working conditions are as manifold as the people featured in this book. From 23-year-old Belgian-born PR professional working in Slovenia, Polish hub initiator and musician in his thirties to international major festival directors and 60-year-old scene veteran from Switzerland, the 15 insider interviewees represent the diversity of the scene in terms of age, gender, region, and position, including experts for special issues related to the topic.

Book is based on personal interviews with music industry professionals

Over 20 hours of very personal talk are framed by professional background information on stress and mental health at work and effective suggestions for prevention and intervention, as well as links to further free resources on the issue. The individual interviews were conducted during autumn and winter 2019/2020 and illustrate the “old normal” in times we now refer to as before the pandemic.

The picture is complemented by three group sessions held during summer 2020, where the interview partners got together and exchanged their thoughts and feelings on risks and opportunities of recent events for the sector. Thereby, a contemporary historical document has been created somewhat incidentally.

Both the individual interviews and the group discussions show: all interviewees share similar
experiences of what they find deeply rewarding and what they find stressful in their work. Almost all of them know mental crises, depression or anxieties. As another interviewee put it, “passion and burnout go hand in hand.”

The insights derived from all these personal stories are interesting not only to those working in the sector, but also to everybody who loves live music and cultural events. Moreover, parallels may be drawn to other fields with similar working conditions and characterized by a high proportion of freelancers, seasonal or precarious employment, and volunteers.

The authors wish to thank YOUROPE – The European Festival Association and Fresenius University of Applied Sciences (Business and Media Faculty) for their support of the project.

You can download “stay SOUND & CHECK yourself” here.

Read the complete book here online:

About the authors

Katja Ehrenberg

Katja holds a PhD in psychology and is full professor at Psychology School, Hochschule Fresenius (Fresenius University of Applied Sciences) in Cologne, Germany, where she enjoys teaching B.Sc. and M.Sc. students in various courses. Her current research interests include stress and self-care, as well as topics of applied social psychology such as communication and conflict in teams, person perception, diversity management, and measures fostering autonomy, self-efficacy, creativity and flow experience.

As a trained systemic counselor (SG-certified), she offers workshops and coaching on these and similar issues for teams and organizations as well as for private clients. She has continuously provided scientific publications and conference talks on her research for over 20 years now.

Being a passionate lover of alternative arts, music and culture, she is extremely grateful for Holger to give her the chance to contribute to the GO Group conferences in 2016 and 2019, Nouvelle Prague 2019 and the European Festival Conference 2019, involving so many inspiring encounters and experiences which, for the time being, culminated in this book project.

More info: katjaehrenberg.de

Holger Jan Schmidt

Holger is one of Europe’s leading networkers in the music festival branch. Holger is General Secretary of YOUROPE – the European Festival Association, the most important representation of European popular music festivals with more than 130 members from 30 European countries. Among various topics he has a special focus on sustainability and social responsibility for festivals and events leading YOUROPE’s Take A Stand initiative and the pan-European think-tank GO Group (Green Operations Europe).

In 2023 Holger was awarded with the two most prestigious award he could imagine. Holger was honored with the “Award for Excellence & Passion” at the European Festival Awards (EFA) and the Arthur Award “The Unsung Hero” from the International Live Music Conference (ILMC) in London in the category “Industry Champion Award”. Holger works as a booker and part of the management team of DAS FEST in Karlsruhe since 2013. He looks back at more than twenty years working at Germany’s legendary admission-free festival RhEINKULTUR in Bonn with a daily audience of 160.000, being in a leading position from 1998 until the festival’s last edition in 2011.

He is contributing his expertise to various EU funded projects such as the Creative Europe network project “3F – Future-Fit Festivals” (running until 2028). Holger is co-author of the book „stay SOUND & CHECK yourself“ dealing with stress and mental health in the live music sector and co-wrote the „Sounds For Nature guidelines for environmentally friendly events“

More info: bnpd.de