Brisbane Venue Closed Until April Due To Firebombing Attack
The police have caught the alleged perpetrator, but Tomcat remains closed, following the Boxing Day incident.
Tomcat (Supplied)
Beloved Brisbane venue, Tomcat, has announced that it will remain closed until April, following a dramatic Boxing Day firebombing attack on the tobacconist below.
Posting to Instagram recently, Tomcat shared a screenshot of a news article, detailing the arrest of the alleged arsonist, 34-year-old Michael Ryan Warburton. In their caption, the indie-grunge venue wrote, “Good news and bad news… Good news is they caught the “alleged” man behind the firebombing. Bad news is we will be closed through till April due to the extent of the damage, with a significant amount of repair work that will need to be done.”
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Tomcat sustained a large amount of smoke and water damage following the attack, but previously told punters they would (hopefully) be up and running by the end of January, writing on New Years Day: “Unfortunately at this stage we will be closed until the end of January. There’s been extensive damage caused by the Boxing Day arson on the tobacconist, meaning there’s extensive cleanup we have to undertake.
“We want to send out our apologies to all the bands with lineups we’ve had to cancel on for the month, we know how much work and effort goes into them, so it’s a shitty situation all around. Big thanks for all the messages of support, they really are appreciated, we will be back! And we will make sure you all know about it when we open our doors again to make up for the New Years Eve celebrations we missed xoxo.”
In a post to Facebook a few days prior, the venue assured concerned fans that their staff wasn’t harmed during the attack: “We weren’t open for trade, so no staff were harmed, and to our knowledge the only person who got burnt was the person setting the fire themselves.”
Tomcat has been met with waves of support from the Brisbane community, with dozens of comments sending their well wishes. Some punters have even offered to help out with the clean up, suggesting a GoFundMe to raise some money for the now-struggling venue - though that is yet to be set up.
For now, all gigs scheduled at Tomcat between now and April are cancelled, with the venue organising refunds through Oztix.
This piece of content has been assisted by the Australian Government through Music Australia and Creative Australia, its arts funding and advisory body
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