How was it? From the first person point of view that is. TV made it look like a thousand ants staring at a cracker with four or five ants on it. It had to be better in Philly than it was on my 36.

We had a really good time and it seemed like most people were enjoying themselves quite a bit. We could kind of see the stage, but it was a little blocked by trees as we were to the side.

It felt more like a big block party than it did a concert. Lots of people were sharing ammenities like blankets to sit on, cold beer, etc..

Will Smith did an excellent job as a host and performer. Jazzy Jeff was the DJ and they did the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air theme song. There wasn't a single person in the crowd of 800,000 not singing along to it.

I was impressed with how smoothly the event went, there were enough bathrooms, food, water. Most importantly, people were in good spirits. From what I hear, traffic wasn't too much of an issue as most people took to mass transit and came into the city via train/subway.

Tonight Philly has to do it all over again on the same stage. Elton John is playing a free concert followed by the city's fireworks.

I wrote a big long thing about how it was yesterday and it doesn't seem to be showing up..

Anyway. Here is an abbreviated version:

Live 8 was a lot of fun, it was like a citywide block party. Most of the city streets had been closed to traffic, including my neighborhood. Everyone was in good spirits, the cops seemed to stay out of your business (as far as drinking and whatnot goes) because the crowd wasn't rowdy or anything like that. There were enough bathrooms, water, etc to keep everyone happy too.

With an attendance between 600,000 to 800,000 at the Philadelphia show, it made getting a view of the stage kind of difficult. There were big jumbotrons though that you could watch. We were diagonal from the stage and could actually see it.. kind of.

The performers were all very good (at least the ones I cared to see). Will Smith did a great job as a host and performer, especially considering his Philadelphia roots. The very best moment of the show was Will Smith swallowing his pride and singing the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air theme song -- to which every single person in the 800,000 audience sang along.

It has been a pretty big party weekend here with Live 8 and the 4th of July falling 2 days from eachother. There was free Elton John concert last night on the same stage as the Live 8 show here at the Art Museum, followed by the Philadelphia fireworks.