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A Home Office spokeswoman said the fees would not harm the UK's competitiveness. "We have done extensive research... Fees are waived if an organisation secures what is called permit-free festival status from the Home Office but the entertainment industry is fearful whether that will survive the introduction of a points-based system for visa applicants next year.

By Louise Jury, Arts Correspondent





The British debut of an Algerian orchestra that was divided by politics but has been reunited after half a century is under threat because of a huge increase in the cost of visas.



El Gusto are just one group whose performances in the UK are in doubt because of the new prices for work permits and visas introduced by the Home Office. Everyone from American orchestras to world music ensembles and events from Womad and Glastonbury to the Proms will be hit by the fees in future.



An act, whether one person or 50, requires a work permit, which is to cost £190 from tomorrow instead of £153. Then every member of a group also requires a work permit visa, the cost of which is rising from £85 to £200.



Fees are waived if an organisation secures what is called permit-free festival status from the Home Office but the entertainment industry is fearful whether that will survive the introduction of a points-based system for visa applicants next year.



Rikki Stein, the British producer who hoped to bring El Gusto to perform at the Barbican this year, said the extra £6,000 in visa costs might make it economically unviable to go ahead. He said it was particularly distressing because of the extraordinary story behind the group.



El Gusto play chaabi, a form of music created in the portside cafes of colonial Algiers in the 1940s and 50s among Jewish and Muslim musicians. It died out when many Jews fled the country because of a rise in religious intolerance during Algeria's war of independence. But a band of musicians, who are now mostly in their eighties, have been tracked down and brought together by Safinez Bousbia, an Irish-Algerian who became fascinated by the chaabi story.



Ms Bousbia is making a film about El Gusto, and the former Blur frontman, Damon Albarn, was a special guest when they performed their debut concert in Algiers in November. They are due to perform again in Marseilles in June, but a planned appearance in London is now at risk.



"Visas are going up from £85 to £200. If you're the Red Hot Chili Peppers playing two nights at Wembley it probably doesn't matter.



"If you're El Gusto of Algeria, an orchestra of 50, it will probably kill the tour," Mr Stein said. "For the kind of stuff I do, it's just a nightmare ... This will serve to prevent many projects from even getting off the ground."



Graham Sheffield, the artistic director of the Barbican, said it appeared to be a form of stealth tax. "If you start adding it up, you suddenly realise it's quite a major hit," he said. The festival-free status made it possible to organise festivals such as its Philip Glass celebration or the planned Ramadan Nights, he added, but once the status was abolished it would mean fewer or smaller events.



A Home Office spokeswoman said the fees would not harm the UK's competitiveness. "We have done extensive research ... and we're confident that we're now in line with other countries' prices and that the people who want to come here will not be deterred from doing so," she said.



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