Each touring team will receive a “Tour Health” package, including a range of specialist support designed around the realities of working and travelling on tour.

This includes:

• 10 confidential “Tour Check-Ins” with qualified mental health practitioners who understand the music industry and touring environment – these take place online and are available 24/7
• A 90-minute occupational health consultation with MITC Touring Welfare Officer Sascha Heeney, who supported Dua Lipa’s Radical Optimism tour
• Healthy Touring workshops providing practical psychological skills for your team
• Resources to support performance and collaboration
• Access to MITC’s audiobook Touring and Mental Health: The Music Industry Manual

Each support package remains available for up to six months, or until one month after the tour ends, whichever comes first.

The precise support delivered may vary according to the size and needs of each touring party.

Applications can be made by artists, artist managers, tour managers or production managers for any small or medium-size tour that meets the criteria below.

To be eligible for the first year of funding, tours must:

● Take place between October 2026 and the end of June 2027
● Involve sustained periods of touring and time away from home, rather than isolated performances – as a guide, this should normally include at least 10 show dates
● Be otherwise prevented from accessing specialist health and welfare support due to the cost

The programme is open to artists and crews from anywhere in the world, regardless of where a tour takes place, with support available 24/7 across time zones.

Both headline and support tours are considered. While there is no single venue-capacity threshold, eligible tours would usually be those at club and theatre level.

The programme is available to touring personnel aged 18 and over.

Applications are made on behalf of a tour rather than by individual crew members seeking support for themselves.

The form can be submitted by:

• An artist or performer
• An artist manager or day-to-day manager
• A tour manager
• A production manager

Year One applications are now OPEN for 2026 – 2027 and support will be allocated between 8 September 2026 and 8 May 2027.

Artists, crew and tour teams can find out more about eligibility and apply here.

Applicants will be asked to provide enough information for MITC to understand the scale, resources and circumstances of the tour, including:

• Artist and tour details;
• Tour start and end dates, number of show days and itinerary;
• The overall period of time the touring party will be away from home, including whether they return home between dates;
• Typical venue capacities;
• Size and roles of the touring party;
• Languages spoken by team members;
• How long the artist has been touring and whether this touring party has worked together previously;
• Details of the wider management/off-road team;
• Any existing health, welfare or psychological support available to the tour;
• Any external tour support or funding;
• The tour’s anticipated financial position, supported by a P&L;
• Any known challenges or particular pressures associated with the forthcoming tour;
• What the team hopes to gain from participating in Pay It Forward.

An internal MITC panel considers the overall circumstances of each tour, including financial need, available resources, touring intensity and time away, existing provision, barriers to accessing specialist support and the likely benefit of the programme.

Funders and Partners have no role in deciding which tours receive support. We aim to let applicants know the outcome within three weeks of receiving your application.

Applications will be reviewed by MITC’s clinical panel.

Factors that will come into consideration include the tour’s available resources and financial position, the size of the touring operation and the intensity of its itinerary, existing health or welfare provisions, any particular pressures identified within the application, and the likely benefit of the programme to the touring team.

We will also seek to ensure that the programme reaches a broad cross-section of the touring workforce across different roles, territories and backgrounds. In allocating places, MITC will consider barriers to accessing appropriate support, including where members of touring teams are underrepresented within the industry or may face additional barriers to accessing culturally appropriate support.

Applications will be reviewed internally by a panel comprising clinical and operational representatives of the Music Industry Therapist Collective CIC (MITC). Final allocation decisions sit with MITC and are made independently of the organisations and individuals funding the programme.

Yes. Tours promoted, represented or serviced by Pay It Forward’s Founding Funders can apply and will be assessed on the same basis as any other applicant.

Founding Funders have no role in selecting recipients, and affiliation with a Funder will not give a tour preferential access to funding. MITC will assess the resources available to the individual tour rather than assuming that an association with a major promoter, agency or supplier means that support is already available.

No. Founding Funders fund the programme and help to spread the word, but they do not select recipients, make clinical or allocation decisions, or receive information about individuals using the service.

Pay It Forward is designed and operated by MITC. Individual use of the service is confidential, and information provided to Founding Funders through impact reporting will be anonymised and aggregated.

Currently no, the application should be submitted by a senior member of the touring team who has the authority to commit to the programme of support.

Applications will be assessed upon receipt of the completed form, with applicants normally notified of the outcome within three weeks.

Successful tours will then complete an onboarding process and baseline questionnaire before their support package begins.

Tour Check-Ins are confidential, online conversations, lasting up to 50 minutes, with qualified and insured psychotherapists, counsellors and psychologists who understand the realities of working in music and touring.

They are not a substitute for ongoing support with a qualified psychotherapist, counsellor or psychologist or medical treatment.

Instead, they provide flexible, ad-hoc support where needed – intended as an independent space to talk something through, reflect on how you’re coping, work through a difficult situation or get support when something is beginning to take a toll. You don’t need a diagnosis, referral or previous experience of therapy to use them.

Pay It Forward is not an emergency or crisis service. If someone needs urgent help, they should contact their local emergency services or attend their nearest accident and emergency department. 

In the event that a practitioner feels someone would benefit from more ongoing or specialist support than Tour Check-Ins can provide, they can discuss appropriate next steps and signpost them towards suitable services.

For details of crisis helplines, please visit: https://www.mitcbookings.com/resources/

Tour Check-Ins and Healthy Touring workshops are currently available in English, Spanish, Italian, German, French and Hindi, subject to practitioner availability.

The live Occupational Health consultation is currently available in English only. With advance notice, a pre-recorded Occupational Health seminar can be provided with subtitles in any of the languages listed above.

Pay It Forward has been established as an initial three-year programme. MITC will evaluate the programme throughout that period,producing an annual impact report using anonymised and aggregated data to examine who the Fund has reached, how different elements of the support package have been used, the pressures and challenges being reported by touring teams, and participants’ experiences and outcomes.

That learning will be used to refine the programme from year to year, so that the support provided continues to reflect both what touring teams need and what the evidence suggests is most useful. MITC will continue to seek funding throughout the three-year period to sustain and, where possible, expand the programme in response to demand. The findings from the initial three years will help inform its longer-term shape and development.

Yes. Pay It Forward is designed to be supported by the wider live music industry, and MITC welcomes interest from organisations and individuals who would like to help sustain or expand the programme.

MITC also gives organisations the option to donate unused sessions towards the Pay It Forward pool whenever they book Tour Check-Ins for their own teams.

They can find out more at https://www.musicindustrytherapists.com/payitforward/support or contact info@musicindustrytherapists.com.