Festival heading for 'enormous' weekend, but is there space for everyone?

It's the home stretch of the 2024 Tamworth Country Music Festival but event organisers are convinced the best is yet to come.

Festival manager Barry Harley told the Leader he's got a "gut feeling" numbers have bounced back to pre-pandemic level, with a growing number of first-timers choosing to come to Tamworth.

He said by Saturday there's expected to be more than 1500 campers pitching their tents, and rolling up to the Riverside sporting fields.

"We've had more pre-bookings than we've ever had before," Mr Harley said.

"Some of those bookings are just for the final weekend so we're having to save a bit of the area for those latecomers."

Campsites run by local sporting clubs, caravan parks, motels and homes are also "chock-a-block", which is something organisers plan on exploring to ensure the festival continues to grow.

Mr Harley said planning for future festivals will include looking at where more temporary campsites can be set up, especially as the sale of caravans and mobile homes grows in popularity.

"What we'll do is consult with the existing caravan parks, because what we have to do is protect their business," Mr Harley said.

The warm weather isn't doing much to deter visitors either, with at least an extra 30,000 people predicted to be in the CBD each day.

Mr Harley said staff have seen a real increase in the number of young people and family groups attending the festival this year.

"This is really, really encouraging because we've really been trying to target out marketing to getting people to come to Tamworth just to experience it, even if you're not a country music fan," he said.

The heat might not be doing enough to deter visitors altogether, but it might be sending them to different spots across the city.

Mr Harley said the warm weather had been doing wonders for the 80 indoor, and air conditioned, pubs and clubs across the city.

"You'll see some fairly heavy attendance at those air conditioned venues," he said.

That opinion is definitely backed-up as well, on Day 7 of the festival the Leader visited a number of pubs, cafes and shops along the main street who were all run off their feet and too busy to stop for a chat.

Highly anticipated events and gigs including the Golden Guitar Awards and the Best of the Buskers will round out the tail weekend of the festival.