Does this count?
My wife and I got swept up into a political demonstration in Bali a few years back for Megawati…We heard estimates of over 1 million people. It wasn’t as if you could SEE all of them at once (it was spread out over many hills and around a town) but it sure felt like there were a million people around…something energetic, it was weird.
-Tcat
got to see Roger Waters performing The Wall in Berlin in 1990. i know the crowd was in the hundreds of thousands–and it seems like half of them took the subway home with us.
The annual Third of July (yes, THIRD) fireworks display and concert in Grant Park that accompanies the Taste of Chicago festival. The turnout is estimated every year as over 1 million.
If you see the park and surrounding streets from one of the office buildings on Michigan Avenue, you will NOT doubt that there are a million people in attendance. Or if you still doubt, just try to stuff yourself onto a Metra or CTA train right after the display ends. 
It makes a normal rush hour – half a million CTA rail riders and over a quarter-million Metra riders – look like 3am on a Monday. :eek: The cops block the east-west streets from Jackson to Madison to all motor traffic to allow the crowds to easily reach the L and subway lines and the commuter rail terminals, and the crowds indeed fill the streets from curb to curb as far west as Canal Street, where Union and Northwestern Stations are located.
1985 Fourth of July celebration on the Esplanade in Boston with the Boston Pops concert and fireworks in the evening. Crowd estimated at at around 300,000 IIRC; I remember we were pondering the fact that there were more people there that day than lived in the home state (Wyoming) of one member of our party. Of course, it was nearly impossible to get close enough to the Hatch Shell to see the orchestra (though I did catch a glimpse of John Williams’ elbow as he was directing one piece). Instead of taking the Red Line back to Harvard Square, I decided to walk while the rest of the party waited for the train. My grasp of the geography of Boston wasn’t yet what it would become, so I walked along the river on the Boston side to Mass Ave, then crossed over into Cambridge. I still made it back to Harvard Square at almost exactly the same time as the rest of the group.
Income Tax Day, 1998.
I hear there were over a hundred million participants.
The 1993 Gay (etc.) Rights March on Washington. Parks Service estimate was around 300,000 vs. 1 million by the organizers’ estimate.
Guiness says it was the largest gay rights gathering ever.
Hey hapa, me too! Crowd estimates were 200-250,0000 IIRC.
You got shit on? Was that included in the ticket price?
I went to the 1993 Indy 500. They usually get about 400,000 there, not counting the ticketless yokels who hang around outside hoping a woman will pull her shirt up for them.
I was in Times Square on 12/31/94. No idea how many people were there, but it had to be a lot because we left at 9:30 from 51st down Broadway and only got as far as about 45th before the crowd became too dense to go any further.
Correction to previous post: I was not in Times Square. I was at 45th and Broadway.
I was at some of the events for the Millenium March on Washington. Crowd estimates varied, but there were moments where I felt like the whole world was gay.
Lots of people, to say the least.
This is for hapaXL and minty green, concerning their posts about “The Wall” in Berlin in 1990.
My folks were trying to get to Berlin that Friday afternoon before banks closed, to cash travelers checks. They didn’t make it in time because of the traffic jam on the Autobahn. Parents didn’t know what was going on, but they have some great video of cars stoped for as far as you can see, with folks out and walking around. Someone asked them(parents were in their sixties) “Are you going to the concert?” They had never heard of the music at all of course, much less the concert, but it’s a fun travelers tale.
I used to be in marching band, and back in '86 we were in a huge competition in San Diego. It was mid July, and there must have been around 30,000 people there. Not much by comparison of some others, but let me tell you, when you get that many people cheering you on, it seems like a million. The largest event I ever attended was the Stones in Oct. 94. Around 60,000; it seemed like half the damn city was there.
World’s Fair in New Orleans in Nov. 1984. Also been in a few of those “Income Tax” gatherings.
The biggest thing I’ve ever been at was an Independence Day celebration in 1994 in Philadelphia. They had a concert on the stairs of the art museum (from Rocky) with Smoky Robinson, etc. There were people on every exposed surface with a view of the museum. The crowd was estimated at 800,000 people I think. The most impressive part, the image that stuck with me, is that after it ended, there were rivers of people filling every single street running away.
No, it was a free bonus–just like the third degree sunburn and Soundgarden showing up late after Kim Thayil being arrested the day before!
Simon & Garfunkel’s free concert in Central Park, New York, back in 1981.
About 500,000 people were there. Of course, I was nowhere near the stage. From where I sat, I could make out a small part of the stage every 15 minutes or so, whenever a breeze came along and blew some branches out of the way. When that happened, I could barely make out someone strumming a guitar, but have no idea whether that was Paul Simon or someone in his band.
In spite of that, I had a great time. Everybody was in a great mood, everybody formed one of those all-too-brief bonds, everybody seemed perfectly happy to be scrunched up against 20 other people.
Though I couldn’t see much, the sound was great, and almost the whole crowd sang along with every song. One of those rare moments that made New York a cool place to grow up in.
Erm… I don’t get out much. Probably Mizzou’s Tiger Walk, the annual “official” entrance of freshmen into the university - walking through our columns towards Jesse Hall. Last year, with the largest freshman class ever, there were about 6500 there.
Well, unless I’ve seriously messed up my math (which is quite possible, but I have checked it)
6.48 X 10[sup]12[/sup]=6,480,000,000,000
That’s 6.48 trillion. That’s about 1,000 times the world’s population.
The largest event I ever attended was was World Youth Day {Giorno Mondial Gioventu) in Rome, this summer. Crowd estmates for Mass with the Pope were about 3,000,000. (3.00 X 10[sup]6[/sup], si?). A huge sea of people, farther than the eye could see … Oh yeah, and it was hot. I think it was over 100[sup]o[/sup] F, and we had no shade. And I still remember shivering that day (from the fountains of cold water)… But all this is another thread.
Wow 3 million. 1 million was awe inspiring, that must have looked crazy.
Looks like the little old polish guy really pulls the crowd 
Last year, during the Fake Millenium (I know, I’ll shut up) I was in the northernmost edge of that mass of humanity (about 2 million IIRC) that saw the ball drop in Times Square. We were 17 blocks north of the Square on 7th Avenue and were actually within Central Park, but we had a pretty clear if tiny view of it all and then fireworks went off in the Sheep Meadow right behind us. Delightful.
Also saw The Pope in the South Bronx in 1979. How vital he was then, and everyone in the then-blighted neighborhood around Yankee Stadium got along and cheered him as he went by. I think between the Stadium and Cardinal Hayes HS, where he went for dinner (and is my Dad’s alma mater) there were 1.5 million of us.
Also been to a few Pops concerts here in Boston and trying to get to the Red Line at Kendall afterwards is wicked scary! :eek: