The Venue
The Salt Palace is a huge place as the name suggests, but it has never felt that stuffed. It had several levels, a hangar-sized vendor hall, panel rooms, ballrooms and--surprisingly--enough bathrooms that I didn't have to stand in line for them. But like I said, it has never felt that stuffed. Fire marshals reported between 70 and 80,000 people in attendance, which is why they had to restrict access to it on Saturday afternoon. For the most part, it didn't seem that bad. It got crazy when we were in the line for one of the main Saturday events and the line looped around on itself a couple of times. I've been on the Esplanade for the Boston Pops 4th of July concert and was crammed into City Hall plaza for Mixfest 98 and this felt as concentrated as both those events. They did a great job finding a venue because I don't think they could have pulled it off anywhere else without spreading it across several buildings. I did, however, step outside at the end of the day and say, "Wow! That's where they've been hiding all the oxygen!"