But events manager Barry Harley said any criticism was "taken seriously" and the council was making appointments with affected businesses to see how to improve their experiences.

He said it would be nearly impossible "to get it 100 per cent" correct for everyone, but it was the council's role to "create the environment to make everyone else do well".

A number of people spoke on behalf of local businesses at the festival community feedback session on Monday night, telling organisers they'd suffered a downturn in event revenue in recent years.

READ MORE:

​"Of course, we don't like to hear businesses aren't doing as well as they'd expected," he said.

"But you've got to take into account the fact in 47 years the festival has created this artificial economy in January.

"In every other regional town there's almost no trading at all unless you're on the beach."

Mr Harley said the festival was a little "off the boil" this year, but there were influences out of the control of organisers.

"The underlying factor was the drought and the heat," he said.

"Both factors we don't have control of, but we worked hard to mitigate them with additional misting towers, water stations and trying to provide more shade with structures.

"We knew that just about all other events over the last 12 months have had an impact from the drought, but we just worked harder with marketing with messages like it was somewhere to come and not spend a lot of money for it to be a very good experience."

Mr Harley said the "artificial economy" created by the country music festival was the aim, on a smaller scale, of the council's mooted and much-debated events levy.

"If you can develop events and attract people to events, they will spend quite a high daily amount around that event," he said.

Support the local news that keeps you informed – subscribe today

Have your say. Click this link to send a letter to the editor