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What was everyone's largest attended show so far (free, paid, special event etc...) and in what city did it take place? you can list 1, top 3 or as many as you'd like! cheers
Free shows: (there's too many, so I'll put top 2, the others range between 30-60K)
1. City: Montreal
Concert: Jazz Fest, outdoors, various artists (100-200,000 people)
2. City: Montreal
Concert: Montreal Symphony, special for the 275th (80,000)
Paid shows:
1. City: Montreal
Concert: Heavy Montreal 2014 (75,000 2 days, 45,000 during Metallica)
2. City: Montreal
Concert: Heavy Montreal 2013 (44,000 2 days)
3. City: Jacksonville
Concert: Welcome to Rockville 2013 (25,000 2 days)
I can tell you what it was: Simon & Garfunkel in Central Park, New York City. September 19, 1981, but I can't tell you how many, and I contest the numbers out there.
This was my first concert and surely my largest. My high school friends and I got there at 8AM, almost 12 hours early, and the Great Lawn was already filling up. We did get a good enough spot that my pic wound up in the album booklet, albeit only one in a sea of faces. So, I have a cool souvenir.
That was my "Woodstock experience"; gentle vibes all day from strangers all around, the smell of weed all around and some acidheads tripping out here and there, sharing of food and water, and just a really good, festival mood. The music and sound system sounded great. It really was a magical day.
Here's where things get muddy.
All kinds of huge numbers were bandied about in 1981 (250,000 was a common one, some went so far as to claim 400,000) In the early 2000's, the figure of 500,000 was suggested and run with. In a 2008 article, the New York Times claimed 750,000 (yeah, like they fit two and a half Woodstocks on the Great Lawn; the Baby Boom has to exaggerate everything...)
While the attendance was indeed large, I have always thought (even as a 16-year-old) that these numbers were grossly inflated, and now they are just ridiculous. There just is no way three quarters of a million people are gonna fit on the Great Lawn, even if you put them in a blender first. Another 2008 New York Times article, mostly about downgraded estimates of Paul Simon's 1991 free concert (which was claimed to be 500,000 and is now estimated at 100,000), suggests that only about 80,000 people can fit on the Great Lawn at one time. Even if people were jammed on top of each other, doubling that number, it still would only be 160,000. And it wasn't that jammed; people had blankets spread out until the show started, when the crowd did thicken.
So, I have no idea how many were there, and nobody else seems to either. But I think 150,000 is about as generous I am willing to get with my estimate. wikipedia is sticking with 500,000, which is why you shouldn't trust wikipedia for primary research in college...
Willie Nelson Picnic /Arrowhead Stadium 1978 with The Grateful Dead, Waylon Jennings, Jessie Colter, Missouri, Jerry Jeff Walker.
once a deadhead, always a deadhead
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