Ahead of the next European Council meeting (17-18 July), 45 leading European cultural figures issued a call for the EU to "be bold and to invest in culture and the arts, to invest in all our creative futures."

Summer is here, and the programmers of the 16 hottest venues in Europe compiled the perfect soundtrack for it.

At a time when countries around Europe are beginning to ease restrictions put in place to contain the COVID-19 outbreak, it is becoming clearer that live venues are going to be the last ones to emerge from the current crisis.

Here is the latest update from the Liveurope members that, thanks to the easing of restrictions in their countries, are allowed to organise concerts again, albeit under limited capacity:

On 26 June, stakeholders from the cultural and creative sectors met with key EU policy-makers in the United for a new future digital conference.

As the EU has started discussing the proposed recovery plan, 99 organisations from across Europe’s cultural and creative sectors are uniting their voices to alert EU leaders: our sector needs strong and systemic support measures to recover from this crisis.

At MIL 2020, more than 30 talks were going to bring together professionals from the music and culture sectors in a unique sharing of knowledge and experiences.

Live industry organisation Pearle* has compiled a map showing when live events are set to return in different European countries.