THE organisers of Ayrshire's "biggest techno warehouse event since the '90s" have said that they are "over and out".

Hidden Ayrshire announced this week that its first rave event in Irvine's Bouncestation last year will be its last - stating it is simply "unable to continue".

But the organisation insists it has not been due to a lack of effort, as it had hoped to continue the event and grow in future.

Organisers have blamed "North Ayrshire Council's unwillingness to co-operate" as the reason for them coming to the decision.

They discussed the decision in great detail as they announced their decision on social media.

A statement said: "By now we’d hoped to have held our huge summer event that we had planned and be looking ahead at a winter event later in the year but it’s become evident that North Ayrshire Council is unwilling to match our enthusiasm and support us in the scope and growth of our event that was totally unique to Ayrshire.

"From day one we set a goal that we wanted to make every event bigger and better than the previous one. When our licence was finally granted after spending several thousands on making sure our safety standards were above and beyond what was asked of us we were still met by huge restrictions from the council and Police Scotland."

The previous event was one which was not without its challenges.

The rave took place at the transformed inflatable park on November 19, though this was far from the original plans.

The event was intially due to take place in April 2022. The month prior, the organisers confirmed the first postponement of the rave, citing "the scale of this warehouse event" as the reason - with additional safety certificates required before it could be approved by North Ayrshire Council and Police Scotland.

Hidden was then re-arranged for September 17, however the event was once again put on ice.

With the election of a new council in May, it also led to new members taking up roles on the licensing committee.

Described as a "very slow process" by organisers, it meant further delays in receiving the required certification for Hidden.

Everything did eventually come together, with the event hailed a massive success.

However, with plans for another rave in the works, organisers say the faced similar problems, which led to the decision to call it a day.

They continued: "Following our very successful first event which was even praised by NAC, we made several attempts to have our capacity increased to allow us to utilise the other half of the building as well as the car park to have an outdoor stage for local up and coming DJs to promote their trade.

"These proposals mostly fell on deaf ears or rather vague and negative responses.

"Due to these restrictions lingering over us and NAC unwilling to cooperate with us we are unfortunately unable to continue to provide an affordable, unique event to the like minded people within Ayrshire.

"We would like to thank all of the people involved, from behind the scenes at the venue itself, the staff on the night, DJs/sound and lighting techs and most importantly to everyone who attended on the night and believed in us over the mountain we had to climb to make our dream become a reality.

"Over and out, Hidden Ayrshire."

Responding to the accusations, North Ayrshire Council has looked to squash claims of a lack of co-operation - adding that no official applications to increase capacity of the event have been brought to them.

A North Ayrshire Council spokesperson said: “We welcome events being held in North Ayrshire and are always willing to support and advise applicants.

“Our licensing committee granted the original Public Entertainment Licence on October 3, 2022. This was for a restricted period of one year.

“We understand that Hidden Ayrshire were looking to increase capacity but to do this all the relevant authorities – including Police Scotland and Fire and Rescue Scotland – would have had to consider the plans and assess them in terms of public safety.

“However, Hidden Ayrshire have never applied to the licensing committee to vary the licence. If there had been such an application a hearing would have taken place allowing the authorities to look at the potential changes and ask questions of the applicant.”