hi Scott got the photo today and yippy yi ya it’s great thankyou so much for takeing the time to sort that for me my friend . big hugs to you and Melissa from across the pond .
-Mark

“What was this?”

-Jon Stewart

I think it[The Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear] was one of those great cases of an event where you have literally thousands of people experiencing the same thing at the same time, and everyone will have their own perspective and experience of the event.  You could tell as the day started and progressed, no one in the crowd knew what to expect, or what would happen.  We were standing here.

I had an amazing day, I thought it was a brilliant rally and was just a lot of fun to be at, you really had no idea who was going to come on stage next.  That was until Kid Rock and Sheryl Crow came out to kill some time, which worked well in favor of the Rally goers, during our bored look-around during those performances, we were able to see what had become the final size, but then Skeryl Crow sang another song, and the lack of interest peaked at this point during the rally.

But the low points are greatly overshadowed by the high points, Peace-Crazy-Love-Train, Giant Puppet Colbert, Jon had to sing, and seeing everyone there, that was the best part, just seeing the crowd, it was a lot of people, and everyone was very respectful to each other and their surroundings.  It wasn’t a perfect crowd, there’s still the loud commentators standing right behind us who lived in DC and thought they should stop by to see this whole “Rally” thing, but that’s the thing, it’s never perfect, and never will be.  My favorite part of Jon’s speech was that there will always be darkness, but we get through it together, using the analogy of a freeway tunnel.  We all have to compromise everyday, and people unwilling to compromise are noticed by the others, but we can’t do anything about them, we can only handle ourselves, and be willing to be the change we want to see in the world, not demand it from everyone else.

I made a short montage of the rally using my canon 60d and schmoyoho‘s autotuned tune.

Here’s just a plain crowd shot to try to show the scope from where we

And here’s a few photos from the day.

My dearest thanks go out to everyone that was a part of this, from reddit to Jon & Stephen, to Mel & Molly for keeping me company, to everyone that made it out and made it what it was, thank you for a memorable day.

The festival was one of the most positive and enjoyable experiences I’ve ever been to, or been a part of.  It was like a festival for artists, by artists and with mostly artists in attendance.  Everywhere you look you would see something else fantastical, and then meet the person who made it, and then you would have them come by later with the same fascination in whatever you’ve created.  There was a great air of respect and openminded-ness that permeated the grounds during our three day stay.  Something I won’t forget, and certainly something to look forward to next year.

I took some video and a few pictures while I was there, so here’s a small taste of what could be recorded.  Click through to the youtube page for HD.

The parade saturday night

The Life-Sized Mousetap

Arc Attack performing the Star Spangled Banner

and Ciara Blossom with the fire hoop

Here’s a gallery of shots I managed to get while walking around, although pictures only show so much, it’s one of those things that you should check out for yourself.