ORGANISERS of a Highland gala have become embroiled in a social media storm after scrapping a day-long musical event that could have brought up to 500 visitors.

Musician Nicky Murray booked bands for the Bash at the Burgh gig in Tain, Ross-shire next month, after he had been approached through a friend Steven Mackintosh to organise a fundraiser for the local gala.

He suggested that as well as selling tickets locally that they should also be available online, but he claimed the gala committee insisted they would only be sold in the local wool shop and at a hotel in Dornoch.

However, the committee has now cancelled the event, claiming there had been a “lack of interest”.

Murray told The National: “I kept suggesting that they might miss out on sales unless they put tickets online and in loads more places as people were travelling from all over… So now, three weeks before the event they have cancelled it without consulting me or any of the bands or even asking us if there is anything we can do to help save it.

“Bands, myself included, managers, promoters, booking agents, bar people, sound engineers, security, lighting guys, and everybody else involved who were dependent on that promised and agreed wage, are now out of pocket.”

He posted a lengthy update on Facebook, where the gala committee came under fire. Dan Smith, from Glasgow, wrote: “Have had similar issues in the past with the gala committee being ignorant to new ideas and contemporary practices to putting these events on.”

Mary Meechan, who lives in Tain, added: “Disgusting, all local businesses losing a lot of money that visitors would have spent. Can’t imagine hotels etc will be happy. Gala committee have to be open to ideas from youngsters, after all they are the future of Tain.” However, committee secretary Christine Finlayson said they had been dealing through Mackintosh, who had drawn up a list of bands including the Elephant Sessions, who later pulled out.

She said: “Steven was great – he did all he said he would do. He was running everything by us and we were giving him the go-ahead.”

Finlayson added that by last week only 20 tickets had been sold and they had no option but to cancel the event.

“We took the decision that we were not going to gamble losing thousands of pounds, because we would have had to cover that cost.”

She said it was then that the social media storm started: “We put out an announcement on Facebook and all hell broke loose. The comments were ridiculous, abusive and disgusting.

“We are so downhearted and hurt at the comments … we had to restrict access to our Facebook page because of them.

“The way people have reacted you’d think it was Glastonbury that had been cancelled.

“Only once did the subject of selling tickets online come up at a meeting and a name was mentioned – somebody none of us knew – and we weren’t going to give him access to money coming and going on our behalf.”

Last night Mackintosh told The National that a lack of public interest had led to the cancellation.

He said: “If there’s no public interest, there’s no public interest and you’ve got to cut your losses....”