WERE people merely standing up to raise their concerns and queries on Monday night or was it an action more akin to jumping at shadows.
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A number of local businesses rose to their feet at this week's country music festival feedback forum and said, to paraphrase, the punters have used their boots to do the talking and are turning up in smaller droves to drop cash.
One man jumped up, supposedly, on the shoulders of 12 enterprises and said two of them wouldn't be opening in the 2020 festival because they didn't think it would be worth it.
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A few more became upright of their accord and spoke of 20 per cent downturns in revenue, the need for fewer staff this year and how campers aren't coming back in the crowds like they used to.
The feedback throng might be jumping to their feet, in stronger numbers than previous years, but it's hard to believe it is just their eyes which are deceiving them.
Yes, the festival is changing and record heatwaves and droughts tell us everything else is changing around us too.
People spent more time in the venues, they had to, the heat was unbearable and unusual.
Tamworth Regional Council events manager Barry Harley spoke to the Leader about the "artificial economy" the country music festival has created for Tamworth in January for 47 years.
It made something out of nothing.
But it wasn't just a jump at an apparition, the city latched on to it and made it work.
And we still want to make it work, it's proven by the fact people are still rising to their feet to protect and improve it.
The festival is not like it used to be, but nothing is.
The good old days are gone and they probably weren't that good anyway.
What we can safely say is the festival is still good for Tamworth.
However, it could be seen as the canary in the coalmine for the city.
It's artificial economy affects our genuine economy, so, inevitably, its health will reflect and effect the rest of the Tamworth.
