In the wash up of last year’s festival, Tamworth Regional Council (TRC) toyed with the idea of banning speakers, with some raising concerns that “one amplifier could drown out 20 or 30 other buskers”, and policing it had been difficult.

Council even surveyed hundreds of retailers and musicians about the proposal.

However, TRC’s country music festival manager Barry Harley said council decided to keep the amplifiers this year, because the “surveying wasn’t clear enough to ban them”.

“What this year’s terms and conditions stress is the word respect,” Mr Harley said.

“There won’t be the measuring of noise by a decibel metre, it will be about respecting those around you.

“If someone has got a PA system, they would be expected to be at a very moderate level, that doesn’t affect those immediately surrounding them.”

Mr Harley said “broadly speaking” there would be a “three strikes and you’re out rule”.

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“If it does affect people, they will be politely asked to turn it down,” Mr Harley said.

“If there are complaints that someone fails to understand, they may very well be asked to move on.”

More than 200 musicians responded to council’s survey, with 73 per cent critical of the excessive volume.

Of those, 15 per cent said they would not return if amplification was banned at the festival, while just over 10 per cent said they weren’t fussed either way.

At the time, council was weighing up a couple of options – the first was to make busking acoustic only.

The second was to have strictly monitored minimal amplification with no backing tracks from morning until the afternoon, then allow booming bands and backing tracks to turn up the volume from 3pm to 9pm.

A poll by The Leader echoed council’s results, with 74.5 per cent saying speakers should be banned for buskers at the festival.

Just over 21 per cent answered no, while the remaining 4.5 per cent didn’t care.

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