'Not an option': Tamworth Country Music Festival 2022 planners push forward despite growing COVID concerns

The timing couldn't be worse, festival manager Barry Harley said, with the NSW Government announcing there could be as many as 25,000 new Omicron cases a day next month.

Health Minister Brad Hazzard last week referred to modelling from the University of NSW, which predicted a sharp increase in community transmission between now and the end of January.

Mr Harley said it's even more concerning that the modelling has coincided with an easing of COVID restrictions for venues.

"Tamworth's festival is extensively venue based, so whatever the health orders of the day are, we and the venues will comply with," he said.

The festival, which runs from January 14 to 23, could attract hundreds of thousands of people to the city.

Despite the dire predictions, organisers are still pushing forward, planning for a "near normal" event.

"Not planning is not an option," Mr Harley said.

"We will just roll through to see what the Omicron brings about. I think it will end up that a lot more personal care will need to be taken rather than a mandated government direction."

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Venues introducing their own crowd counts, QR codes for festival run events in the park, are all options that could be considered, he said.

A growing outbreak in Newcastle linked to pubs and clubs could also reduce festival crowd numbers, Mr Harley admitted.

"These sorts of announcements bring about a nervousness and particularly from interstate, so somebody who last week was considering coming from Queensland could have been given a reason to consider maybe they shouldn't," he said.

"We accept honestly that it might impact but it will only be a small impact."

The festival is hoped to inject up to $70 million in the Tamworth economy - and after last year's cancellation, businesses are crying out for the financial boost.

"We really want to reinject that [money] because that affects literally hundreds of businesses that are expecting to trade well during the festival," Mr Harley said.

"It's so important for the festival to go ahead."

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