Where Was the Crowd for the Reason Rally?
June 5, 2016
by Hemant Mehta
For the people who attended Saturday’s Reason Rally, it was a wonderful event (at least from my perspective). It was a chance to meet other atheists, hear inspiring speeches, and feel like part of the majority… if just for a few hours. At the very least, it was a chance to surround yourself with many other like-minded people — something most American atheists never get a chance to do back home.
But one of the storylines coming out of the event is that, compared to the estimated 30,000 people who showed up in 2012, this Rally brought together far fewer people.
That wasn’t supposed to happen. After all, our community has grown over the past four years, there was no rain this time around, and there were big-name celebrities on the speaking roster (though some of the most famous people on the list, including Johnny Depp, Margaret Cho, and Richard Dawkins, couldn’t ultimately participate for a variety of reasons).
No official crowd estimates have been released. But even in the early afternoon, when the crowd was likely at its peak, nothing I saw suggested “15,000 to 20,000” in attendance, as the organizers told Religion News Service. I’d put the range at about half of that, but we’ll see.
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2016/06/05/where-was-the-crowd-for-the-reason-rally/
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