Biography

I was born in England in 1978. Raised and educated in London, found design work in the music industry. Emigrated to Lithuania in 2005. Organised raves, got elected as City Councillor and became the first Night Mayor of Vilnius. Began advising other politicians, ended up advising the Foreign Minister.

Diagnosed neurodivergent in 2025, which explains a lot of the stuff that happened before that. Married with one child. Prefer beer to wine. Can sail boats and shoot guns. Currently working in strategic communication, specialising in politics and international affairs with my boutique communications agency Metaretorika.

Full CV on Linkedin:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/markadamharold/

You can also browse my best interviews, portrait photos and music projects here on my official website.

Things I don't regret

These are the most important things I am proud of achieving so far:

Learning to play music
Joining the Air Cadets
Teaching swimming
Visiting Afghanistan
Emigrating to Lithuania
Helping local musicians
Getting elected
Becoming Night Mayor
Resisting nightclub raids
Representing venues during the pandemic
Setting up the Vilnius Night Office
Advising Lithuania's Foreign Minister
Organising Ukraine's Independence Day Rave
Organising the NAFO Summit

Learning to play music

I can play (quite badly) the piano, trumpet and drums, and I also sing (quite well). I have been producing and performing electronic music since the nineties, sometimes on a boat. My daughter has no choice, she will learn music, it's the most important subject.

Joining the Air Cadets

The best part of school was the Combined Cadet Force which offered the military discipline and motivation I was looking for. I joined the RAF Section and learnt flying, shooting, navigation, organisation and determination. I rose to the rank of Flight Sergeant and barrel-rolled a Chipmunk.

Teaching swimming

I qualified as a swimming teacher without knowing how much I would love it. I eventually taught hundreds of kids to swim and gained a reputation for handling the "difficult" ones, probably because I could relate to them.

Visiting Afghanistan

In 2011 I worked on a photography project for the US State Department in Afghanistan. I lived in Kabul, visited a remote village in the Panjshir Valley, helped the organisers of a rock festival, ate a lot of naan bread, dodged a checkpoint on the back of a dirtbike, found a great Lebanese restaurant which later got attacked, and flew back to London just as the Taliban were firing at the Intercontinental Hotel with grenade launchers. The experience was disturbing and unforgettable.

Emigrating to Lithuania

I studied and then worked in London, developing artwork for music and films during the dotcom boom — but when I discovered Vilnius in 2004, I decided to live there instead. You're welcome to visit and I'll be happy to show you why I never looked back.

Helping local musicians

For many years I ran a nonprofit called Music Export Fund which worked to increase Lithuanian music exports and encourage professionalisation. We also participated in MusicAire and the Horizon project OpenMuse to find ways to make the music economy fairer for musicians.

As part of the official celebrations of Lithuania's 100th Anniversary we set up the first official Spotify account of any sovereign state (even Sweden didn't have one) and compiled a list of 100 historic pieces of Lithuanian music.

I was also the first DJ to play a 100% Lithuanian setlist and I recorded a mix of Lithuanian artists which was tied to a weather balloon, probably becoming the first DJ mix in space.

I have helped musicians and municipalities in many interesting localities including Montreal, Kyiv, Lviv, Odesa, Tbilisi, Brno, Timișoara, Budapest, Rīga, Berlin, Bratislava and Kabul.

Getting elected

My work in the music industry in London was what led me to Lithuania. In Vilnius I promoted many events with local and British musicians, giving me name recognition and support from the nightlife community. After one of my raves was fined for noise pollution, somebody joked that I should run for election to the City Council and change the rules.

The joke turned into reality when I defeated the Electoral Commission in court to secure my right to be a candidate, and then with the help of a campaign video parodying the incumbent Mayor I successfully convinced hundreds of ravers to vote for me. I became the first non-citizen to be elected in Lithuania, swore on the Constitution to serve Vilnius, and worked as a Councillor for 4 years.

During my term of office I campaigned to set up a nightlife safety hub, I legalised food trucks, defended LGBT+ equality and represented immigrants, initiated the municipality's sexual harassment prevention plan, refused to claim for expenses in protest at the corruption of the compensation system, exposed dodgy rental contracts for city property, fought to change an antisemitic streetname and received death threats for suggesting that the city basketball team should be sold to its fans. I lost the whip after I made a very overenthusiastic facebook comment about gay marriage and migration, after which I survived two attempts to throw me out of my seat entirely.

Developing Nightlife

Becoming Night Mayor

While serving as a City Councillor I discovered that there were other people from the world of raves working in politics in other cities. They were called Night Mayors, so I became the first Night Mayor of Vilnius and championed projects to develop the night economy and hospitality industry.

Resisting nightclub raids

When a new government came to power and the police started unlawfully raiding nightclubs with automatic weapons and physically abusing innocent clubbers — we fought back. Eventually the raids stopped and haven't restarted since.

Representing venues during the pandemic

After my time as a Councillor I set up a nonprofit Vilnius Night Alliance to lobby for the nightlife community, attracting more than twenty venues to co-sign a Charter of aims and values. During the pandemic this campaign became the main voice for nightlife businesses and ravers, organising a mass protest in cities all over the country, so I then founded an chaired a business association called NaktA.

When the government justified nightlife lockdown due to the lack of a track-and-trace system, we built one in a couple of weekends based on QR codes and SMS messages. Hundreds of venues signed up for the scheme and we tracked over 50,000 visits.

Setting up the Vilnius Night Office

After the pandemic, when elections were approaching, I lobbied one of the mayoral candidates and he incorporated my nightlife program into his election campaign. When he won the elections, the program was included in the coalition agreement. The main promise — a municipality-funded team to advise on nightlife development and harm reduction — was soon approved in Council, and so I oversaw the setup of Vilnius Night Office as Chair of the advisory board. The organisation is one of the best-staffed and well-funded of its kind anywhere in the world.

Imterview about nightlife regulation with Palanga Street Radio

Supporting Ukraine

Advising Lithuania's Foreign Minister

I had the honour of working with Gabrielius Landsbergis, the Minister of Foreign Affairs for the Republic of Lithuania, advising him on strategic communication and dominating Twitter. I was hired soon after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine and most of my work was strengthening international support for Ukraine, Taiwan and other democracies around the world.

You can hear the full story in this excellent NARA podcast with Karolis Vyšniauskas. You can also follow Gabrielius Landsbergis on X and join his newsletter at landsbergis.com.

It’s official 👍 pic.twitter.com/hEfb3eHJuf
— Gabrielius Landsbergis🇱🇹 (@GLandsbergis) January 25, 2023

Putin never escalates when we help Ukraine. He escalates when we don't help enough.
— Gabrielius Landsbergis🇱🇹 (@GLandsbergis) July 12, 2024

Organising Ukraine's Independence Day Rave

I was asked by the Culture Ministry of Ukraine to organise a rave to celebrate Ukraine's Independence Day. So I did, and it was massive.

Organising the NAFO Summit

NAFO are self-identifying brain damaged cartoon dogs who support Ukraine and fundraise on Twitter. I organised their first real-world event — The NAFO Summit — timed to coincide with the NATO Summit in Vilnius.

During the summit we were attacked by the "russian opposition" for using an inflatable shark as a prop. They posted some unhinged tweets accusing us of all sorts of wild stuff. We responded by taking the shark for a swim in the pond next to the russian embassy and then we took it raving.