Last week we had some great news to share, we were awarded a grant from Arts Council England for our Americana Festival and creative work, and funding to fix the lifts for more accessibility. With a great programme ahead of gigs, poetry and community work as well for the year and a fantastic weekend ahead with poetry, gigs, Crunch On Fire and so much more.

Please hold all of this loveliness in your minds when you read the following and remember that is what Phoenix and Fiery Bird are about and that is what all our team work for and that we always come back. This is a hard one though.

Yesterday (27 March), we came in to find that the building had been broken into, all of the copper piping and cabling and the tank in the roof had been ripped out and stolen. The building was flooded by mains water pouring down which caused damage.

They also got into the venue area and stole some of our PA that volunteers had secured by years of fundraising. This has been reported to the police.

The building is now secured however with the water off, toilets ruined we cannot open to the public.

So the events this week are regretfully cancelled. Surrey Choices SEN adults work teams, Thursday Open Mic, Write Out Loud Woking, Lovely Music Night, Crunch On Fire. We are sorry to all of those who work so hard to put these events on and who worked so hard to get this venue open.

We are all devastated at another setback but we know this project is worthwhile, and we know with everyone’s support we can make it fly as we intend and Woking deserves.

We will have more news when we can reopen and will be working towards that now.