Festival behind the scenes: Barry Harley is an events maestro for the people

With a keen understanding of the festival's pulse, he sees a bright future on the horizon for the festival - and the industry - among its up-and-coming talent.

Between the Star Maker talent competition, the country music academy, and buskers on Peel Street, the man who has spent nearly a decade as council's country music manager says Tamworth will only go up from here.

"Emerging talent is the future of country music. That stems from the buskers, and Tamworth is a unique festival because it's the only one that has that degree of busking," Mr Harley told the Leader.

As the manager of the biggest country music festival in the southern hemisphere, Mr Harley says keeping everyone happy is "like nailing a jelly".

"But that's also one of the positive sides of this festival: no one owns it," he said.

He points to busking as an example.

There are more than 300 buskers registered to rotate through the festival's 50 spaces, and making sure each gets a spot in the limelight is a herculean task.

"We try, generally, to make decisions that are for the majority of people. That's not necessarily 100 per cent of people," Mr Harley said.

But that's exactly what keeps Mr Harley coming back each year: a passion for making sure as many people as possible see Tamworth in the golden light he sees every day.

Though he confesses he's not a country music fan, Mr Harley says it brings him incredible amounts of joy to see the benefits of the international industry come straight into his backyard.

"I identified very early on how important country music is to this city, not only as a brand, but as a physical, active component of keeping the industry alive and well, and in turn the industry keeps our community alive and well," he said.

"My motivation has been to maintain that, to actually keep the cohesion between the individual benefits and the big, global picture."

That motivation is what drove Mr Harley from his humble beginnings arranging shopfronts at the local Myer all the way to managing Tamworth's biggest event of the year.

He says while some may describe the festival as chaotic, the country music manager argues it's exactly that freedom of choice that creates the festival's unique and dynamic atmosphere.

In his opinion, the fact you can walk 50 to 100 metres through the CBD and hear no less than three types of music is one of the festival's greatest strengths.

"Does it need curating? No, it doesn't because the venues and the artists are curating it themselves," Mr Harley said.

Though he's often too busy running the festival to enjoy it himself, Mr Harley says his favourite part of the event is seeing "hundreds and hundreds of happy faces and families" through Peel Street.

He says Tamworth's reputation as a safe environment for festivalgoers of all ages is a source of immense pride.

As for his own future, Mr Harley says he's "acutely aware" of his age.

While he doesn't have plans to retire just yet, when his time comes he's confident his team - and the broader community - will keep the festival's momentum going well into the future.

"When the organisation sees fit to remove me or when I remove myself, they'll be very capable of carrying that baton," he said

"The reality is that not one person is running this. I might be able to influence certain decisions, but literally hundreds of people run this festival."