Some numbers and other details from the National Anthem concert

Charley has already said most of what needs to be said about last Friday’s National Anthem concert.  I found the evening to be so extraordinary — I have never experienced anything like that audience before — that words fail me, beyond a simple “thank you” for coming, for supporting our efforts, and for doing what you can to make this country a better place.

I do want to pass along a few details about the concert.

• We exceeded our publicly-declared goal of raising $50,000 for the Obama campaign.  Our ActBlue ticketing pages raised $49,600, and we sold over $3,500 worth of walk-up tickets.  We very nearly sold out Jordan Hall, which seats about 1,000.  The place was packed!
• In fact, our ActBlue page was so successful that, of all the pages on ActBlue raising money for Obama, ours is second in terms of dollars raised (only “Orange to Blue,” which is sponsored by Daily Kos, reports raising more), and fifth in terms of total number of donors.  We’ve raised more money for Obama than Blue Majority; more than John Aravosis at AmericaBlog; more than Atrios; more than Wes Clark.  And we did it almost entirely with donations of $100 or less.  Pretty cool.
• After we finished the official program (at about 11:15 pm!) I said a few words, and then audience, soloists, and orchestra joined in singing and playing the National Anthem.  It was a great moment.  I got a lot of very nice emails after the concert, and I wanted to share a couple of them (with permission from their authors), since I think they captured what the evening was all about.
  

  Friday night was so incredible — the community, the music, the shared purpose. We’re all in such a state of high anxiety about the election, and this was perfect in every way.

  The national anthem at the end made me weep, because it was an act to reclaim so much that the right has denied us as patriotic Americans.

  It’s often hard to think about anything except what’s at stake in this election, but music has a great power to transcend the moment.
  

  And here’s another one:

  A friend called it “touching” to see all these people, musicians and audience members coming together for such a good cause. And I might add, for a brief moment to step away from the ugliness and stress of a difficult campaign to create something truly beautiful.
  

  My thanks to all who took the time to email me their thoughts on the evening.

Please share widely!

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