I recall when the first DEMF's [Detroit Electronic Musical Festivals] were held at Hart Plaza and the number one million being tossed around. Clearly it was no where near that, maybe 100K at best. I'd say the same for the Red Wings parades.

Like Van Dyke Brown, my guess is that the Fireworks crowds which line both side of the Detroit River might rival this weekend's numbers. However those are very difficult to assess.

I use the 115,000 full Big House in Ann Arbor as my measure for guesstimating. Based on being amid a few of them and from the aerial shots of downtown during the Draft, I think the estimates of 700K over the three days are accurate.

It's my understanding that the outdoor arena on the Monroe Block was ticketed. Are there numbers for those tickets sold? Outside and about that there were clearly thousands more hanger-abouts.