TAMWORTH council has reiterated that if the Country Music Festival was cancelled, only six hours' worth of water would be saved.
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The annual event brings in $50 million to the local economy and will provide a much-needed boost for many businesses experiencing a drought-related decline in revenue.
"We have said endlessly the Country Music Festival does not result in a significant increase in our water consumption," Tamworth water director Bruce Logan said.
"We've looked at the numbers and on balance, the Country Music Festival over the 10 days uses about five additional megalitres in total.
"When you consider we are using 20 megalitres a day, five megalitres over 10 days is very little water.
"Five megalitres is one quarter of a day. So if we ban the Country Music Festival, we would get six more hours out of our water supplies. I think that's not significant."
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Even though the festival only uses a small amount of additional water, the council is taking extra steps to keep it to a minimum, and will be cracking down on campers with more patrols in the campgrounds.
"All the campers at Riverside get a package that includes information about the state of the water supply and how they can supply water," Mr Logan said.
"We'll be policing more than usual, we've changed all the taps down in the camping areas.
"Traditionally people have hooked up to those taps and had water in their caravan the whole time, or fill their little pools. We'll be policing that far more this year."
Council will also provide all visitors staying at hotels and motels with information packs about the water situation and how they can limit their use.
In other festival news, a social media campaign has kicked off to squash rumours the festival has been called off.
The hashtag #2020TCMFItsON has been backed by festival organisers and the local business chamber.