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Daily Record
Daily Record
National
Toni Lennox

First look inside Making Waves Festival site as music lovers gear up for weekend spectacular

An army of event staff are working at Irvine beach park to get the beauty spot ready for this weekend's Making Waves Festival.

Site manager Cal Reid started at 7.30am in the blistering heat on Monday with 15 other workmen to begin the back-breaking task of fencing off the area earmarked to fit an audience of 3,000 and developing the infrastructure for all of the needs of the festivalgoers.

And Cal plans to keep the long hours and double his workforce as the week goes on to make sure the first-ever Making Waves music festival goes off without a hitch.

He said: "On Monday, because of the weather, we had 200-odd people coming through the site on their way to the beach, so our first task was to fence the area off.

"It was a hard day but we managed to get the job done and now we're beginning the slow task of building the stage.

"The stage, which goes up slowly but comes down quickly, will be similar to that of the TRNSMT Festival stage."

The setting up of the stage will be finished by Friday night (Irvine Herald)

Headlining the Saturday stage are Scottish rockers Del Amitri and Twin Atlantic.

Fatherson, JJ Gilmour, Blue Rose Code, Nerina Pallot, and Anna Sweeney will be playing in the afternoon.

Freckfest organiser Craig Smart hopes the event will spark an interest for future music festivals to consider Irvine as a potential venue.

He said: "We have a three-year plan and we hope this first festival can showcase the beach park as a great festival venue to promoters.

"The festival is opening to all ages and groups but the Saturday event runs until 10.30pm and, as the night goes on, will be more suited to younger people, couples and groups of friends.

"Then, the Sunday event is very family-friendly and runs until 6.30pm. It's so great to see it finally coming together after all of this planning.

Dream team: Site manager Cal, event planner Fiona and Freckfest organisers Danny and Craig (Irvine Herald)

"We've got amazing acts lined up and I'm excited to see everyone there and having a good time."

Making Waves is a project two years in the making. It was meant to be enjoyed during Scotland's Year of Coasts and Waters in 2020 but Covid put the brakes on.

"The name 'Making Waves' is a nod to the 2020 Coasts and Waters festival," said event planner Fiona Anderson.

"What I love most about creating an event like this is taking a vacant space and building something amazing, creating a space for people to enjoy and have fun. And then a few days later taking it all down and the space should look like you had never been there."

Kicking the event off on Saturday will be a thrilling show by the Red Arrows. The gates open at 12noon and then Red Arrows will fly from 1pm, with Anna Sweeney opening the show at 1.50pm.

On Sunday, the festival will begin at 1pm and runs till 6pm. Headlining will be the Red Hot Chilli Pipers.

Also playing on the day will be Abbamania, Big Vern 'n' the Shootahs, XSM (ex-Simple Mind), and Junkman's Choir.

Saturday tickets are £45 or £50 at the gate and Sunday tickets are £15 or £17.50 at the gate. Children aged five and under can get a ticket free of charge. Buy your ticket here.

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