Detroit sets NFL draft attendance record. Largest Detroit event ever?

[jcole]

When I was a kid, late 60's/early 70's, they used to say that there was over a million at the fireworks. Downtown would get shut down at about 5 in the afternoon, Belle Isle earlier than that. They literally shutdown the freeways coming in to the city with cop cars parked across them.
Hoedown at Hart Plaza in the mid to late 80's ran about a quarter million people

[1953]

I was at the Red Wings parade in 97 and it struck me as one of the most well attended events in Detroit history [[at the time), although it was only one day and not three.

1953

[401don]

When I was a kid, late 60's/early 70's, they used to say that there was over a million at the fireworks. Downtown would get shut down at about 5 in the afternoon, Belle Isle earlier than that. They literally shutdown the freeways coming in to the city with cop cars parked across them.
Hoedown at Hart Plaza in the mid to late 80's ran about a quarter million people

As has been stated, these non ticketed events are often greatly exaggerated. Hart Plaza when empty of tents, stages, etc. can hold about 40,000 people.

[Bong-Man]

The late 70's - early 80's hydroplane races were estimated at over a million people. I know they stretched the truth, but those years of the races were very well attended.