Tamworth Country Music Festival organisers 'pull out all the stops' for jam-packed program in April

Floods to the north, and a new COVID sub-variant may have caused some booking hesitancy but festival manager Barry Harley said overall concert sales are strong.

"Clearly there is still some uncertainty in the community in terms of COVID and what its impact is going to be, and that's had a bit of an impact on ticket sales," he said.

"But we're still quite comfortable with a steady flow of sales, and our ticketing outlet is recording about 400 to 500 sales a week."

There are more than 400 musicians and performers booked over the seven-day event which runs from April 18 to 24 and organisers have pulled out "all the stops" to make the 50^th event as big as possible.

"The 50th anniversary concert which is a daytime show on Thursday is fully sold out," Mr Harley said.

"That's absolute capacity of TRECC. The awards are also selling extremely well.

"We expect the other shows will pick up as we get closer and people can make a more certain decision about what they're going to do."

Mr Harley said while the festival won't be as big as what was planned in January, it's an opportunity for the community to have a "second bite of the cherry".

"We've missed out for a complete year, and this will just be an opportunity here for the businesses in town and the community to try and replicate what January should have been," he said.

Businesses are banking on it, according to Powerhouse Hotel Tamworth general manager Daine Cooper.

"Businesses rely very, very heavily on the influx of visitors that come into town during Tamworth Country Music Festival," he said.

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"We've got plenty of accommodation providers, they all need to survive. They've done a very good job over the last couple of years keeping afloat."

And despite motel patrons reporting price hikes of hotel rates during the April dates, Mr Cooper said there's more than enough accommodation options to go around.

"We have a good spread of accommodation providers across town from the low-end to the high-end side, there's plenty of options for everyone," he said.

Booking hesitancy due to the floods in northern NSW and Queensland has also worn off, according to Mr Harley.

"It did have a bit of an impact on ticket sales initially, but over the last week, that's lifted back to normal again," he said.

For information on all the events for the 50^th anniversary celebration from April 18 to 24 visit www.tcmf.com.au

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