During the festival, Tamworth Taxis will hand out thousands of free bottles of water to passengers catching cabs at the Brisbane St rank.

The “gesture of goodwill” has only been made possible through a partnership between the cab company, Safari Club Bar and Grill and Spurling Bridal and Formal Wear.

Safari Club owner Elliott Dube will supply the water, while Spurling’s Rod and Maureen Hands have offered to keep the bottles chilled on their premises.

Tamworth Taxis director Greg Rowland said the idea was a simple and practical way to thank out-of-towners for their patronage.

“The one aspect of having the country music festival in the middle of January is the 4000 to 5000 patrons we move off the rank over the 10 days are quite often very thirsty,” he said.

“The spirit behind the whole exercise is to thank the people who come here, through a gesture of goodwill, for supporting local businesses and for using our taxi service.

“These are people who come a long way and put a lot into our economy and we are trying to thank them for their support and their continued attendance at our country music festival.”

With extra lights needing to be installed outside Spurling Bridal and Formal Wear to illuminate the rank, the taxi co-operative approached Mr Hands and offered to pay for the electricity.

But Mr Hands said he was more than happy to cover the expense himself in order to support the scheme.

“We have no problem with the taxi rank being moved outside our shop during the country music festival - in fact, we sort of welcome it because there extra security,” he said.

“I think it’s a good gesture from the taxis and for that bit of contribution we were more than happy to donate it.”