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An estimated 215,000 politically moderate, comedy-loving Americans gathered on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., over the weekend to join comedians Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert in their combined event: Stewart’s “Rally to Restore Sanity” and Colbert’s “Keep Fear Alive.” The goal was to outnumber conservative cable provocateur Glenn Beck’s earnest “Restoring Honor” rally, for which organizers claimed to have drawn anywhere between 300,000 and one million people, although news media analysis put the number at just 87,000 attendees. Stewart and Colbert proudly boasted that “somewhere between 10 million and 1 billion” people came to their event, notes Britain’s Independent.
But seriously, the hoopla inspired a local rally in Denver, which drew hundreds of people to Civic Center Park, reports The Denver Post. And the day saw a combination of partying and politics. While the D.C. rally featured the Roots, John Legend, Ozzy Osbourne, Cat Stevens (Yusuf Islam), the O’Jays, and many other big-name musical guests, Denver hosted the Flobots’ Jonny 5, both performing and speaking to the crowd about peace and sanity (watch video taken by one attendee below), as well as other local acts. 9News has video from both the D.C. and Denver rallies, and Westword provides a slideshow.
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