Two music promoters who had their gear stolen by “party pooping thieves” have smashed their fundraising target to replace the stolen equipment.

Divine Schism has put on DIY shows in Oxford for 10 years.

On Thursday, the band's promoters Richard Bell and Aiden Canaday told their Facebook followers they had been “victim to some party pooping thieves”.

The promoters said thieves had stolen Divine Schism’s PA system and other equipment.

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Mr Bell and Mr Canaday admitted their shows "don’t really make any money so they couldn’t afford to replace the gear themselves".

Since starting their Go Fund Me fundraising page online, the promoters have already smashed their £5,000 target and said they were “overwhelmed with the love and support from everyone”.

Speaking exclusively to the Oxford Mail, Mr Bell said: "Not in the slighest did we believe the target would be smashed so quickly.

"We were really excited when the first donations came through, as Aiden and I were doing a DJ set at the time.

"I went over to Aiden to show him we had raised a few hundred pounds already and then a few seconds later we had raised nearly a grand.

"It was amazing."

In the end, they raised £5,106 in total.

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In a statement on Facebook they said: “We’ve way exceeded even our stretch target in less than 12 hours, so have stopped donations.”

The promoters have promised to use the money to “upgrade the equipment for bigger, better stuff, so we can bring even bigger and even better shows to Oxford”.

Mr Bell said they had already talked about upgrading the equipment before it was stolen and the "extra money would enable them to get some really good equipment".

Despite stopping donations on their fund raising page, Mr Bell said people had been "so generous" and were still getting in touch to donate money.

Mr Bell has encouraged those still wanting to help out to give money to the Young Women's Music Project (YWMP), which is an Oxford based charity which works with young women and non-binary people to create safe spaces for them to make music.

The next show is on May 7 and will be at Common Ground.

The event kicks off at 2pm and tickets cost £15, with an online booking fee of £1.50. 

The show will be a musical fundraiser for the YWMP and the line up includes musicians such as Holiday Ghosts, Dream Phone and Sinews.

Upcoming gigs further down the line will include showcases for Wombo, The Klittens and Sea Power.