Postponed 2022 Tamworth Country Music Festival deemed 'a success' despite accommodation issues

But the collateral fallout of the postponement sparked calls for better communication at a review panel this week.

Tamworth Accommodation Group representative Andrew Mitchell said the industry was given no forewarning, but he believes its resulted in more transparency.

"We were loaded with people wanting to cancel and new people wanting to book and it was just logistically quite a difficult exercise," he said.

"I think out of it there's been better communication, and I think we may be on the table with these sort of decisions in the future, which is positive."

Austin Tourist Park manager Alison Edwards said the park was forced to put on a last minute mini-festival in January to cater for guests, but "the vibe just wasn't there".

She also called for Tamworth Regional Council to raise the price of camping at the Riverside Camp Ground.

"For those who don't know, it's $170 for ten days no matter how many people you have on the site," she said.

"It should be increased by a minimum of 25 per cent to $220 for the ten days, and let's put some money back into the pockets of the ratepayers because you keep asking us for money."

READ ALSO:

Festival manager Barry Harley said postponing caused a considerable amount of collateral fallout, but conceded they hadn't quite grasped how hard it would hit accommodation providers.

"Making the decision to postpone, all of these thoughts were taken into account - competitiveness with other festivals, what likely might happen," he said.

"But some of those that we didn't expect were in the accommodation sector," he said.

However, the region's hospitality industry couldn't have been happier with the result, given the circumstances.

Pub Group venue manager Michael Squires said visitation numbers at multiple venues on the last weekend of the festival weren't that far off a January event, and it showed there was an opportunity to hold an event in April.

"There's an opportunity to add another activity to Tamworth's growing list of events, but obviously we strongly believe that the ten-days in January that has been going for 50 years should never be replaced," he said.

The April event would likely bring some different genres of music into the mix, Mr Harley said.

"The very broad and early consensus from a bunch of venues that got together was that it shouldn't be a country music only event in April, because that would be too close to the January event and it could water it down," he said.

The cancellation of the cavalcade proved a contentious issue, organisers said, and while there is currently no plan for it to be revived in 2023, its future will be "reviewed".

It already has one high-profile supporter in Tamworth Regional Council deputy mayor Mark Rodda, who said he would be advocating for its return.

Over 200 buskers attended April's festival, and on average there was 26,000 visitors in the CBD per day, organisers said, but that number climbed to 34,000 on Saturday.

According to a festival survey, attendees rated the atmosphere as their number one reason for attending, followed closely by "new acts".

Of respondents, 25 per cent were first time visitors, and 75 per cent said they would return in 2023.

More than 170 visiting members of the media registered for the week-long festival.

Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content: