IRVINE BEAT FM claim they have been frozen out of the Marymass festivities.

The community radio station have this week taken aim at the festival committee over their absence from the Moor on Marymass Saturday.

They claim the Marymass Festival Committee have been unwilling to work with Irvine Beat - instead opting to use other DJs from outwith Irvine.

But this week their claims were vehemently denied by members of the Marymass Festival Committee, who insisted the radio station had not been frozen out of the festival.

Irvine Beat have regularly held roadshows on Marymass Saturday, at the Harbourside Festival and other events on the Marymass calendar.

The premise of the station’s first broadcast in 2008 was as part of Marymass.
But the Irvine Beat board have this week voiced their frustration at being left out of the festivities for 2016 - despite their best efforts to get involved.

The station claim they approached the Marymass committee to do a roadshow - which costs them roughly £500 to organise - at the Moor on Marymass Saturday.

However, the committee instead offered Irvine Beat a spot near the Greasy Pole which the station said was an impractical location.

Dawn Jamison, a board member and presenter at Irvine Beat, was Marymass Queen in 1978.

She’s demanding answers from the committee about their apparent unwillingness to involve Irvine Beat in the festivities.

Dawn said: “I was gutted that we couldn’t have been there.

“I would have done anything to have been at the Moor on Marymass Saturday.

“The feedback we’ve been getting online is ‘shame on you’ for not being there and it’s absolutely not the case that we didn’t bother.

“I’ve never known it to be as closed off as this and we want to know why we’re being frozen out.”

Station Manager, Jack Bennie, added: “There seems to be this misconception that we have lots of money coming in. We don’t.

“We rely on grants and we’re surviving month to month.

“We’re not funded by anyone.

“So as well as being a registered charity, we need to also operate as a business and be able to cover our costs.”