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Welcome to the 35th Newsletter!
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Autumn has already arrived, and we hope you’ve all had a busy, eventful and interesting festival season! ☀️
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So, what’s coming up next for our brilliant community:
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🎉 WE HAVE GOT A NEW PARTNER: ROBE! 🎉
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We are SUPER EXCITED to announce that WILM has a new partner — ROBE, one of the world’s leading lighting manufacturers! ✨
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And yes… this is particularly good news for all our lighting people! 💡 We’ve got some very exciting things in store for you over the next year, so watch this space! 👀
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But this partnership is also great news for the wider WILM community!
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Together with ROBE, we have committed to contributing to a more family-friendly live music industry — something we believe is essential if we want to build a more inclusive and sustainable industry for everyone. 👨👩👧👦 + ❤️
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LEaT Con, Hamburg Oct. 6th – 8th
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Come and meet professionals from the Germany event industry at LEaT con – and yes, you can bring your baby. There’s even room for you to breastfeed
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Again we will have a stand – and participate in a couple of talks, panels and round table talks on the 6th and 7th. But not only that: This time we have organised a Walk & Talk at the Elb Philharmonic in association with LEaT Con on the 8th at 5 PM where we leave the Messe Halle together after a full day of network and sharing of knowledge with the German live event industry – Oh, and don’t miss out on the traditional meet up ‘ROSA STUNDE’ on the 7th at 16.00 @ the LEaT lounge, Booth #A4-A03
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So Alive Music Conference
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Eastern Europe meets Western Europe in Sofia, Bulgaria 🇧🇬
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Once again we will be present at So Alive, where we will be performing a mentor Session on Effective Advancing, the Good Soundcheck, and Performing the Smooth Show
This is our absolute favorite music conference with an amazing performance list – Will you be joining us?
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Walk & Talk in Leipzig Oct.18th 🇩🇪
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Our very first Walk & Talk in Leipzig! And this time with a German touring production!
Come and meet Tour Manager Maya Sontheimer & her co-worker when they’ll show off the different workstations they got on this tour as well as how they got a foot in the tourbus.
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***The event is free of charge for WILM members!
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Non-members will be asked to pay a fee of €10
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Not a WILM member yet? SIGN UP HERE It cost a montly fee of € 4,20 to become a WILM member and will gain you free access to all of WILM’s activities.
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Walk & Talk in November & December across the European continent
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Nov.27th Oslo – Nov.28th Stockholm – Dec. 3rd Warsaw – Dec. 7th Budapest Copenhagen Nov.25th
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Don’t forget to follow us on social media — LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram — where we’ll be sharing more information about the dates and locations of our upcoming Walk & Talks across Europe! 🌍
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WILMAwards 2026
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🏆 The Nomination Round Has Opened 🏆
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Please visit our website to make your nomination
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✨ You can nominate your female colleagues — or even yourself ✨
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Nominations close: 18 October
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🥂 And of course, we’ll be celebrating the incredible women behind the scenes with a great ceremony: 17 December—London, UK
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***Please note that the nominee must be based in Europe, the Middle East or Africa and currently active in touring, festivals or live events. (musicals are unfortunately not included)
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Either 2nd or 3rd week of January – and as usual in Sweden. Beginner or experienced? It plays no role as the snow will feel cold to everyone. But no worries we will meet up in the evening in front of the fireplace with a cup of hot chocolate after a long day outside in the beautiful nature of Sweden – where we per tradition will gather at lunch time to enjoy the vegan hotdogs, and share stories about the cross ski experiences or wild rides on the black slopes
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The dates will be finalised medio October – so keep an eye out on our social media or the WILM website
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Fatima’s Blog
From never listening to metal to life on the road with Death Angel! 🤘
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In her latest blog, Fatima takes us behind the scenes of her very first touring experience — discovering the realities of life on the road, from early mornings and endless logistics to festival chaos and the occasional transport disaster.
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Along the way, she discovers new skills, new career possibilities and, most importantly, the power of supportive people and women supporting women.
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A brilliant and honest account of learning, questioning, getting stuck in — and finding out that maybe touring really is the path for her.
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What we have been up to since the last newsletter:
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WILM Walk & Talk:
Dermot Kennedy + System Of A Down
+ Hollywood Vampires
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What do these three acts have in common? Well, they all have an incredible crew they can be very proud of! They had invited a bunch of members to come along to see how a stadium/larger gig comes along and embraced the in total 30 WILM’ers with open arms, welcoming them with a warm and forthcoming mind, willing to share their knowledge and experiences. Like one of the WILM’ers said:
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‘I just want to thank you all for organizing today. It was honestly beyond what I imagined and I’m thankful for all the amazing people we got to meet. Everyone was beyond kind and gave us really helpful tips and advice. It was really encouraging 🫶🏽’
👉 Opportunities like these provide invaluable insight into the many career paths available behind the scenes in live music 🔥We welcome any possibilities for a W&T
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Walk & Talk with ‘Hollywood Vampires’ in Cologne & Hamburg
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Walk & Talk with ‘Dermot Kennedy’ and ‘System of a Down’ in Dresden, Birmingham and London
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WILM Festival Camp at Ravnedalen Festival 🇳🇴
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This summer, WILM teamed up with AKKS Kristiansand and Musikkontoret SØRF for a week-long Festival Camp at Ravnedalen Festival in Kristiansand, Norway.
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Five emerging women from across Europe came together for a week of hands-on learning, workshops, networking and real festival experience. The programme covered everything from festival production, stage management and health & safety to technical skills and backline, followed by the opportunity to work alongside the festival team and meet members of the touring crew.
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One of the strongest outcomes was the sense of community that developed among the participants. They shared experiences, supported each other and built new professional connections, while gaining confidence and a broader understanding of the many career paths available backstage.
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A huge thank you to Ravnedalen Festival, AKKS Kristiansand and Musikkontoret SØRF, as well as all the tutors and touring professionals who generously shared their time and knowledge and helped make the camp possible. 💜
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🇩🇰 Copenhagen, Denmark – August 13th
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We always have great experiences meeting touring crews – But yesterday was something really special!
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Not only did the crew take the time to show us around and share their knowledge, but we’ve rarely come across such a diverse touring team It was genuinely inspiring to hear that the band actively makes a conscious effort to surround themselves with a diverse crew. Way to go, Amyl and The Sniffers — more of this, please!
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We were also excited to discover that TM Asst, Jessica Ambrose, joined one of our WILM Walk & Talks a few years ago — and look at her now! Out on tour as a Tour Manager Assistant, and one of those passing knowledge and experience on to the next generation
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A huge thank you to the crew for the brilliant and inspiring round-table conversation about misogyny, touring life, creating a good working environment and so much more — and for later giving our WILMers the opportunity to join you on stage for the changeover!
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Jess — Tour Manager Assistant
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And another huge thank you to Xenia Grigat, Head Promoter at smash!bang!pow! and her fantastic team for allowing us to get right into the heart of the operation.
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This is exactly why we do what we do. Creating connections, sharing knowledge, opening doors and showing the next – and existing generation what a career backstage can look like.
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PLASA In London September 6th – 8th 🇬🇧
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Whether you’re a seasoned professional or completely new to the live music industry, PLASA is a always a great opportunity to meet people from across the industry
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A couple of highlights were two of the new connections we made. First, Kazumi from Japan, who has been the only female Japanese rigger for almost 43 years — and who has, at times, quite literally had to fight for her place in the industry.And then there was Rin, who had to flee her home because of war and is now in London, where she is developing Crewed, an app designed to make everyday life a little easier for freelancers.But we were also part of two incredibly interesting panels. One was a panel on Childcare On Tour? organised by LSi and so beautifully conducted by Rob — and, quite by coincidence, featuring two expectant mums! (congrats Katie Melua & Olive Olin)The other panel was ‘Imposter Syndrome vs Gaslighting on the Gig’. And honestly — when a former monitor engineer from Morrissey can say “I suffer from imposter syndrome, but I still get through the show”, then surely there’s hope for all of us!
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Thank You PLASA for the invite
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Gig-Postcard 💌
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We genuinely appreciate our members taking the time to send the postcards and keeping us updated on their activities
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You can send your postcard via email or simply post it in our private Facebook Group!
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Looking for your next crew member?
Check out our Crew List! We got 400+ competent crew members to choose from:
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Wanna join the Crewlist? If you sign up now, it will only cost you € 4,20 a month
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You can sign up for a membership with WILM 👉 here
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***A WILM membership costs €50 annually and gives you free access to all of WILM’s events + 15 % discount at our WILM webshop
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****In some countries you can deduct the membership fee if you have a VAT number!
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***Keep WILM Sustainable***
Become a WILMAmbassador
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