According to NZHerald, 300,000 people watched the Santa Parade

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NonprayingMantis

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#72545 28-Nov-2010 19:34

seriously? wow.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/image.cfm?c_id=1&gal_cid=1502728&gallery_id=115474#7214207

"An estimated 300,000 people gathered to watch the Santa parade on Queen Street in central Auckland this afternoon."

I know the weather was great, but surely this is a typo? 300,000 seemsa a vast amount of people to watch a Queen Street parade.

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#410453 28-Nov-2010 19:42

http://www.santaparade.co.nz/history/

"Today the Farmers Santa Parade attracts over 250,000 people, 4,000 participants and 280 creations of Christmas magic over a 2.2km route."

vexxxboy

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#410489 28-Nov-2010 21:53

i remember going to it when i was a young kid and even then(early 70's) it was crowds everywhere and speaking of farmers can anyone remember the multi story Farmers that had the playground on the top floor where parents dropped there kids of and it was just mayhem, today OSH would shut it down but that's all i can remember so it must have been fun

Common sense is not as common as you think.

tomgeeknz

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#410490 28-Nov-2010 21:56

That's 136~ people per 1m of the route....

NonprayingMantis

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#410496 28-Nov-2010 22:14

tomgeeknz: That's 136~ people per 1m of the route....

exactly. that number is just ridiculous.

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#410506 28-Nov-2010 22:58

it took me 35 minutes to get out of the sky city carpark at 5.30pm today... even after having early dinner first. there were definately a lot of people in town. we were on albert st, not queen street, and it was at least 5 deep with people on both sides of the road, plus heaps walking past.

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NonprayingMantis

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#410511 28-Nov-2010 23:11

Regs: it took me 35 minutes to get out of the sky city carpark at 5.30pm today... even after having early dinner first. there were definately a lot of people in town. we were on albert st, not queen street, and it was at least 5 deep with people on both sides of the road, plus heaps walking past.

but even so, 300,000?

auckland's population is only something like 1.3m, which means around 1/4 of the population went to the parade.

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NonprayingMantis

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#410513 28-Nov-2010 23:30

by comparison MLK's "I have a dream" speech was attended by around 300,000 people and looked like this

nickd

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#410516 28-Nov-2010 23:36

@NonprayingMantis: They are all so much wider than us though.

I would say they would make that number easily. I used to be on one of the floats in it and it always amazed me just how many people could squash into such a tiny amount of space.

NonprayingMantis

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#410524 29-Nov-2010 00:16

nickd: @NonprayingMantis: They are all so much wider than us though.

I would say they would make that number easily. I used to be on one of the floats in it and it always amazed me just how many people could squash into such a tiny amount of space.

at 136 per metre I would be impressed too.

networkn

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#410527 29-Nov-2010 00:22

That makes no sense, for a start, you need to consider both sides of the road, and the fact the pavement is METERS wide, people go on the balconies etc too. Also the xmas in the park gets those sorts of numbers most years.

NonprayingMantis

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#410529 29-Nov-2010 00:41

networkn: That makes no sense, for a start, you need to consider both sides of the road, and the fact the pavement is METERS wide, people go on the balconies etc too. Also the xmas in the park gets those sorts of numbers most years.

but also need to consider that 136 permetre is the average (68 per side, ok). Looking at the photos I have seen, none of the crowds look more than 5-6 deep. It would need to be much, much deeper than that to get the required 68 per metre average.

e.g
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/image.cfm?c_id=1&gal_cid=1502728&gallery_id=115474#7214205

Xmas in the park gets that many, but the domain is absolutely massive. A huge area, not a relitveley thin line.

Maybe I'm wrong, but I just can't see how so many people could line the sides of queen street. There just doesn't seem enough room.

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networkn

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#410531 29-Nov-2010 00:43

It may be exaggerated, but not by too much!

Torque

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#410536 29-Nov-2010 01:11

Wouldn't surprise me - huge number of people everywhere!

scuwp

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#410548 29-Nov-2010 07:59

NonprayingMantis:
Regs: it took me 35 minutes to get out of the sky city carpark at 5.30pm today... even after having early dinner first. there were definately a lot of people in town. we were on albert st, not queen street, and it was at least 5 deep with people on both sides of the road, plus heaps walking past.

but even so, 300,000?

auckland's population is only something like 1.3m, which means around 1/4 of the population went to the parade.

You will find a heap of people travel in from out of town. I do every year.

Lazy is such an ugly word, I prefer to call it selective participation

nickd

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#410614 29-Nov-2010 11:19

There are a lot of people that don't stand to watch the parade, but come and check us all out at the staging area before/after so the little guys can get up close and see, rather than the floats being hidden behind a sea of legs. The herald pictures don't do it justice. It's a shame, I used to have photos looking out toward the crowed but I can't find them at the moment, the top corner before heading down Queen St is the most packed area and would easily surpass your 68/m.

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