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Sorry - as a native Portlander - I can tell you that where that pic was taken - you can only fit so many people in - it is a semicircular, amphitheatre-like area of the south waterfront called “Riverplace”. There is an annual Blues Festival held there in the summertime which on a bad day draws far more people than were pictured in the AP images. I do not know how many were claimed to be in attendance, but it is doubtful there were more than 12,000 to 15,000 there for Obama. Considering the number of socialist slime inhabiting Portland, I cannot say I am impressed. Not by any of it. just my “native” input A.A.C.

A good piece of the puzzle, let's look at some pics of the Portland Blues Festival and compare it with Obamarama 2008:

http://www.robbyz.com/photos.html Looks like a bunch of people! How many? http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=17300

AAJ: In its second year the 2005 Portland Jazz Festival expanded from three days to ten days, offering 10 big-ticket events, spotlighting a wealth of local musical talent and presenting educational opportunities in conjunction with various Portland universities. In retrospect, did you bite off more that you can chew, or were these huge steps forward a natural progression? BR: I don’t know. I haven’t thought that way. I view my role as presenting the right artist to the right audience. Sometimes you do all the right things, and it still doesn’t work, but when it does work you do it again. I believe that ‘success,’ regardless of specific circumstances, is based upon confronting your limits and going beyond them. Was 10 days too much? Were 10 ticketed shows too many? Did we offer too many free performances? Was there enough of an audience for the jazz education programs? Well, in 2004 our overall attendance was about 15,000; we sold out 5 of the 6 ticketed shows in advance; hotel lobbies and lounges were overflowing from the free shows; and all year we’ve had school groups inquire about how to be a part of our Black History Month programs. 2004 PDX Jazz was ‘successful,’ so in 2005 we did more. Yes, we stretched our limits, but nothing is broken. I would expect that next year will again be 10 days with, who knows, maybe 8 ticketed concerts or maybe 12. I was comfortable with this year’s festival. Of the ticketed concerts, 7 of the 10 ticketed concerts sold out in advance with an 8th selling out day-of-show. I think that next year will look a lot like this year. We’ve found our niche with Presidents Day weekend and the potential Sunday night stay-over, which makes the hotels happy. In ’04 we sold 264 hotel packages. This year, we sold 538, and we estimate total attendance around 22,000-23,000. Most important, for the second consecutive year we did NOT lose money. A rare feat in jazz.

Interesting. So in one day Obama bested the Jazz Festival by a factor of 3! Jazz Festival looks pretty crowded to me, plus they didn't have everyone shoehorned in on one side of the Obama Stage...

From this it appears that there were a lot more people at the Obama rally than this festival. I had estimated the area at 13,000 square yards and the crowd at 25-40k. I agree 75-80k seems high.

Well - I appreciate the added input - it does appear to validate my ballpark estimates as being far closer just based upon a cursory look at the wide shot and knowledge of the size of that particular section of Waterfront Park

Thanks!

A.A.C.