Tamworth Country Music Festival weather: Rain likely for start of festival

Rain is forecast from Thursday onward, with a good chance of thunderstorms and showers thanks to tropical moisture that's moving south.

Some places could see heavy falls, Bureau of Meteorology meteorologist Helen Kirkup said.

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"At this stage we are looking at five to 10mm over a fair area for a few days," she said.

"Within that it's going to be hit and miss purely by the nature of thunderstorms.

"The moisture stream is coming in so with some luck it will fill some water tanks up and put some fires out."

Tamworth Country Music Festival organiser Barry Harley won't mind if the rain comes to fruition. In fact, he hopes it does.

"We'd love to have a wet event, to be honest. It'd be great for the region," he said.

But electrical storms are another thing. They would affect the free concerts at Bicentennial Park.

"We won't call them off if it's raining but if there's an electrical storm and there's a safety issue, we take that very seriously," Mr Harley said.

"We have closed down concerts before. If we feel it's going to be a danger to the performers, the contractors or suppliers of the stage or the people, then we'll close it down."

Mr Harley said rain would have an effect on the number of festival-goers who attend the nightly free concert but they would be driven into the undercover venues instead.

"We've got this big venue down here [at Bicentennial Park] but it's a free event so it's not too critical if the crowds are made smaller by a weather event," he said.

"If it happens to be raining on a night, it might take the crowd back from a potential 6000-8000 to 4000-5000 but we know those people are enjoying the festival somewhere else."

Along with rain, cooler temperatures are likely for the start of the festival.

Tops in the high 20s and low 30s are expected. Friday is likely to hit 28 degrees.

However, it could feel warmer due to the moisture in the air creating humid weather for the region.