As many of you will be aware, on 17 June FUSEBOX suffered a major flood due to a blockage in the building above, which caused our pipes to burst and toilets to overflow. Over the past few weeks, we’ve been working closely with venue partners to understand the extent of the damage and plan the recovery. Unfortunately, a second incident occurred on 15 July, and the building was once again flooded with wastewater.

This bittersweet news comes off the back of a brilliant FUSE International with companies from around the world coming together to share their work.

Thank you for bearing with us as we work with partners to rise to these new challenges and identify next steps forwards. All events in the immediate future have been cancelled and hirers have been contacted. It has become clear that there’s a more serious issue with the surrounding drainage infrastructure, and we are anticipating a recovery timeline of several months rather than weeks.

We hope to reopen in Autumn 2025. If you’d like to contribute to our recovery, any donations are gratefully received at this difficult time and makes the world of difference to our team.

Thank you to everyone who was part of FUSE 2025!

From the performers and chaperones, to the audiences, technicians and volunteers, FUSE saw an inspiring range of shows and activities coming to Kingston across the 9-day festival this summer.

International highlights

We continued to foster significant international collaborations, with 2025 highlights including:

• The Kpop Hop: A high-energy cross-cultural street dance performance linking Siheung City Youth Foundation (South Korea), Vital Signz Dance and Kingston College. This event was preceded by the signing of a three-year Memorandum of Understanding with Siheung City Youth Foundation.

• Cross-cultural dance workshop: A day of exchange between UK dancers and visiting Korean artists, documented in a short film.
Watch the video celebrating the collaboration

• Future plans: Creative Youth has been invited to contribute to Siheung City Youth Day in October 2025, continuing to build international links.

• Returning international artists: Bucharest’s 2024 festival favourites returned with a bold neon-soaked 1980s reimagining of A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

Pre-flood FUSEBOX plans

FUSEBOX was due to act the heart of the festival – the home of fringe shows and a social space for artists, volunteers and audiences. Losing this hub was a key challenge for us, and is something will return to next year. Additionally, this reduced key earned income such as Bar Income; making our achievements in exceeding targets even more demonstrable.

Activity we planned to deliver during FUSE:

• Magyk Open Call Exhibition, funded by Arts Council England and curated by Young Creatives
• Fringe shows including a cabaret show by Karma Obscura, returning favourites from FUSE International and FUSEBOX Festive Programme.
• Solo exhibition by emerging international artist Caroline Lacoma, entitled ‘The Making of a Woman’.

Audience feedback

“The festival was great. I really enjoyed the variety of different performances available and the vibrant atmosphere.”

“I love FUSE international. I love the idea of it, I love the execution and every year I think I must see more next year.”

“Overall it was a lovely experience, well organised, and a beautiful space to watch it”