Van Theft: Help Us Get Back On Our Feet

Aim

Help Oi Musica recover from the theft of our van, containing most of our samba drums and other assorted instruments and equipment.

Who We Are

Oi Musica is a not-for-profit community music organisation based in East Edinburgh. Our aim is to broaden participation in music, particularly amongst young people facing disadvantage or barriers to participation. We work with 80 young people weekly at our award winning youth project Brass Blast, as well as running a busy programme of education work, performances and events. We are a small team of 4 staff and 10 freelance musicians.

What happened

On the evening of Sunday 25th October 2026, our van was stolen from Westbank Street in Portobello, Edinburgh. It had been loaded with instruments earlier that day, in preparation for the working week ahead. This included a full kit of samba drums (with unique hand painted bass drums), sticks, beaters & straps, two sousaphones (marching tubas), our Director Marcus’ trumpet, a plastic euphonium, bag of Brazilian percussion instruments, box of trumpet / trombone mouthpieces, a mic stand and cables and a silent disco kit with 20 headsets and custom made battery. Plus personal items including picnic rugs, a box of kids outdoor activities & games and a basic box of tools.

Why We need your help

Despite having insurance cover in place, this is a huge setback and we still stand to incur significant losses. This is for a range of reasons:

Insurance - some instruments were donated to Oi Musica, and without proof of purchase they are not covered by our policy; some instruments / equipment was new and had not been added to the list we submit annually to our insurer. Additionally, instrument cases and small items like sticks, beaters and straps were not covered. We have calculated the cost of replacing uninsured items to be £5,642. All drums were insured, but the cost of getting the bass drums professionally painted by hand again is around £980.

Operating without a van - we now need to find a way to keep our programmes running without instrument transport. Our van was bought secondhand; we then renovated it to carry 6 people and to include a secure, enclosed bulkhead with shelves for instrument storage at the back. It took 3-4 months to find the right van and then modify it for our needs. We are now looking at around 4 months operating without transport, firstly while we wait for insurance pay outs, and then while we search for a suitable van and renovate it. We estimate a cost of £1,200 in van hires, taxis and last minute transport arrangements over the next 4 months.

Loss of work - dealing with the fallout from losing our van and instruments is time consuming and has pushed our workload to stressful levels. Our number one priority is to keep our current programmes of work running and avoid cancelling anything - which we have managed so far! We are now operating with borrowed drums and bits of equipment, resulting in a different set of complicated transport arrangements each week. As a result, we no longer have capacity to take on new work, which we would have done in the next 4 months. We estimate the loss of income to the organisation at around £4,000.

Additional security measures - when we do manage to replace the van, we are extremely wary of becoming victims of vehicle theft again. We have no lock-up or driveway to park the van overnight, with no option for CCTV to cover the street/s where it is parked. All the advice points to a layered approach to security, so we have costed up a series of security measures including immobiliser, trackers, deadlocks, steering lock & pedal guard. Total cost £750.

A bit more info

We would love to operate without a van! But we don’t have our own premises, and we don’t have a base for running classes where we can also store instruments. Our core aim of broadening participation includes reaching people who might not have the means to travel to us, so being mobile and bringing our instruments and positive music experiences to communities is central to what we do. We are asking ourselves a lot of questions about how we might operate differently, as we try to recover from this. But if we are going to continue running inclusive projects and providing instruments, then we need a van. With the busy programmes we run, van hire logistics are too complicated as a long term solution. 

Any support you can offer to help us get back on our feet, no matter how small, is greatly appreciated. 

What if there is a surplus / deficit from the crowdfunder?

If the costs we anticipate over the next 4 months are less than expected, any surplus generated will go straight to our youth project, Brass Blast. This will ensure that young people of all backgrounds in East Edinburgh continue to be able to access high quality, joyous and inclusive collective music making. If there is a deficit due to unanticipated costs, we will add a stretch target to our crowd funder. Either way, we will keep you posted via updates on this page.

Finally… THANK YOU to each and every one of you who has shared our social media posts, offered help, been in touch to donate instruments, brought us cups of tea and generally offered support. This has been a horrible experience that we wouldn’t wish on any small business or community group. But we will get through it!

Media coverage

BBC News

STV News 

Edinburgh Evening News 

Instrument Donations Are Welcome!

A huge thanks to everyone who has offered to donate instruments, or has asked what we need. We are struggling to reply to everyone, but we will respond as soon as we can. We’re grateful to all of you!

Here is a list of kit that we would welcome - it would be put to use immediately:

• Pairs of drum sticks (in good condition, that children / young people can use without getting splinters)
• Light plastic whip sticks for repinique
• Surdo beaters
• Samba drum shoulder and waist straps
• Brazilian percussion: cowbells, agogôs, chocalhos, ganzas
• caixas
• repiniques
• Sousaphone mouthpiece (brass)
• Cabin-sized wheely suitcases 

We continue to be open to donations of:

• Trombones, trumpets, P-bones (and cases)
• Clarinets
• Saxes

We may be able to collect donations, but if you’re able to drop them to our office in Portobello this would be helpful. Please email [email protected] 

Funding method

Keep what you raise – this project will receive all pledges made by 16th December 2026 at 8:00pm