In 2013, the city hosted the event that attracted 18,000 people. All the accommodation in Dubbo and nearby Narramine sold out, while a large percentage of the Gilgandra and Wellington’s hotels were booked out.

When Dubbo City Council (now Dubbo Regional Council) crunched the numbers, the region had received an economic injection of $1.4 million from the event.

But former Dubbo mayor Mathew Dickerson said the nationwide exposure the city got was priceless.

“Triple J has a huge audience – I tuned in a lot in the weeks before the event, and Dubbo was mentioned at least every hour, sometimes three or four times an hour,” Mr Dickerson said.

“People would tell stories about living in Dubbo, things to do, places to see. In the build up, they talked to people who were road tripping to Dubbo.

“On the night of the event, I went around introducing myself to people. About 90 per cent of them had never visited Dubbo, while about 50 per cent had never heard of Dubbo before, so that’s the sort of exposure you get.”

Dubbo Regional Council’s economic development manager Josie Howard said there was also an enormous flow-on effect.

“We noticed our online visits and unique page views were up and more nationwide than usual,” she said.

Council also used the event to showcase what the city was capable of, and attract other big events.

While Dubbo may be significantly larger than Manilla, Mr Dickerson believes his city “won it out of sheer enthusiasm”.

“Triple J want to be welcomed with open arms, they want somewhere that is as keen to do it as they are,” he said.

“If there is any advice I can offer to Manilla or council, it would be get enthusiastic, then multiply that by 100 and you’ll have a pretty good shot at it.”