
A few folks asked for a real head-count instead of “looked huge,” so I ran the numbers with ChatGPT’s help. Here’s the quick version, then the nerdy details.

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TL;DR
	•	Best single-number: ≈ 16 500 people
	•	Reasonable range: 15 000 – 18 500
	•	Method: measured the lawn area, estimated what fraction was occupied, applied crowd-science density figures.
	•	Totally happy for anyone to poke holes in the math.

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How we got there

1. Lawn footprint	First Ward Park is ~18 200 m² total. The central lawn (inside the tree belt) is ~8 100 m².

2. Occupied surface	Masked grass pixels vs people/signs in three drone frames. About 76 % of the lawn was physically covered

3. Density zones	High-density core (40 %) packed at ~3 people/m². Middle fringe (35 %) at ~1.5 people/m². Loose edge (25 %) at ~0.7 people/m².	

4. Crunch the numbers	8 100 m² × 0.76 × 2.0 people/m²	≈ 16 500

Why the range? Swap the densities up or down a notch and you land between 15 k and 18.5 k.

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Caveats
	•	Trees hide heads. Canopies block the view of some clusters.

	•	Perspective distortion. Oblique angles compress depth.

	•	It’s a snapshot. People were still arriving and leaving. This frame is a moment in time.

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ChatGPT’s role

I asked ChatGPT to walk me through the Jacobs crowd-count method, sanity-check the density assumptions, and format the results. All measurements (pixel counts, masks) were done on my end, ChatGPT just helped lay out the math.

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Your turn

Think I missed something? Got a better aerial photo or on-the-ground clicker count? Drop it below. I would love to tighten the margin of error.

Charlotte rally size, crunched with ChatGPT: about 16.5k in First Ward Park