PERFORMANCES at a theatre festival in Poole Park are going ahead today after the first day was wrecked by vandals.

The pop-up venue hosting the Roundabout Festival was vandalised before Saturday's performances, with key equipment damaged or stolen.

The 168-seat auditorium was put up on Thursday. It was due to host the world premieres of three new plays as part of a festival including comedy for kids and performances from youth groups.

A statement on the event's website said: "Today is the last day of Paines Plough's Roundabout in Poole.

"Our team have worked hard to get everything back on track after some unforseen challenges on Saturday and all shows are running as scheduled today (Sunday). Don't miss this last chance to see the Youth Performance Platform in association with Activate (3.30pm), and two great plays, How To Be A Kid (2pm) and Out of Love (5.30pm)

"The Roundabout tent is the world’s first pop-up, plug-and-play theatre. It flat packs into a lorry and pops up all over the country. Roundabout needs no special skills to assemble - no piece of the auditorium takes more than two people to carry. It takes six people about a day to pop it up and plug it in

"Roundabout is completely self-contained with state-of the-art LED lighting and surround sound." 

The festival began with disappointment on Saturday when organisers discovered the vandalism.

A statement on Saturday said: “Overnight the tent was vandalised and key equipment needed to run the shows was damaged or stolen."

One Saturday performance, the Comedy Club 4 Kids, was moved to the Gallery at the town's Lighthouse, but other events that day had to be scrapped.

The Roundabout Festival was organised by Paines Plough in association with Lighthouse and Activate.

Lighthouse chief executive Elspeth McBain told the Daily Echo: she waqs "deeply disappointed that despite security on site, a group of vandals were seemingly intent to wreak destruction simply for the fun of it".

She added: "The team at Lighthouse and the actors and crew have been brilliant in getting the venue up and working again."

Visitors to Poole Park yesterday were frustrated at the vandalism.

Poole resident Violet Marchant said: “We were going to go and have a look to see what it was. What has happened was just mindless and disrespectful. It was nothing but mindless vandalism.”

Dawn Ippet, from Dorchester, said: "“Not so long ago the Ark Cafe was vandalised. I come here quite a lot and I have known vandalism to happen here for a long time. It’s a shame.”

It is the second incident in a matter of weeks after The Ark Cafe, yards away from the theatre, was targeted by vandals who broke windows and caused internal damage.