After weeks of scaffolding, tents and jersey barriers being the only visual signs that anything was afoot, this past weekend  the Democrats came to town and the city went from pure anticipation and gossip to the reality of 30-50,000 political junkies here to play and make history.

From my vantage on the hill just north of downtown life has not changed much. I still walk into downtown and can easily move to and from my office by car or bike. But, once downtown, there are throngs. Free bicycle stations everywhere. MSNBC taping live on a screened in stage behind Union Station, the Big Tent on Wynkoop Street  hosting a variety of Digg forums with activists and celebrities (and celebrity activists). Free smoothies from Google. Pedicabs  doing a brisk business and giant donkeys and elephants patrolling the streets on segways. Parties everywhere, all night long.

Given the giant carnival it is,  it was appropriate that the first official event took place at Elitch Gardens - Denver’s major amusement park. 15,000 journalists, DNCC staff  and Denver Host Committee members strolled the midway, rode the rides, won giant stuffed animals, watched fireworks and danced to Denver’s own Flobots and the Railbenders. Governor Ritter, Mayor Hickenlooper and Senator Ken Salazar opened the festivities (after being briefly stranded after dinner when their official convention Tahoe hybrid wouldn’t start (!)). The Denver Newspaper Agency sponsored the event, as an historic tribute to the 1908 Denver Democratic Convention, when the media first partied at Elitch’s. Green Teams were out in significant numbers with Zero Hero trash sorters, composting all the corn-based cups, plates and utensils and trying to send as little as possible to the dump.

Elitch's Media event

Green Sunday featured the Green Frontier Fest at the Denver Performing Arts Complex (including a giant wind turbine blade, courtesy of Belgian wind giant Vestas, which is now creating green jobs in Colorado), as well as Green Sunday at Red Rocks.

green sunday

The genesis of this concert was in Laurie David’s spring 2007 visit to Denver, when she drew about 3000 people to the Convention Center for a conversation about global warming (spawning a number of related initiatives by inspired listeners, including the Denver bag ban proposal and a group that makes tote bags from recycled clothing). Laurie and the Mayor (with me standing by), discussed the potential of the DNC to increase awareness about climate, and imagined a great concert….15 months later, Sheryl Crown, Dave Matthews, Sugarland, Robert Kennedy Jr., Van Jones and several others came together and played to a full house at Red Rocks.

On Monday the convention was underway.The Big Tent on Wynkoop Street downtown was full of bloggers, speakers and audiences,

the streets of downtown were filled with conventioneers, the protesters got busy, and there were many police everywhere. I lucked into a ticket to be inside the Pepsi Center on Monday evening to watch the Mayor welcome the crowd, and see Senators Nancy Pelosi & Claire McCaskill, Caroline and Ted Kennedy (a remarkable performance coming as he was direct from a hospital bed) and, finally, Michelle Obama, who was nothing short of pure inspiration.

Unlike reports of Boston in 2004, this convention is surely proving to be a boon to Denver business. The hotels and restaurants are full, and until 3:00 everyday, most delegates and journalists are free to wander by foot or free bicycle and spend freely. The weather’s been good. You can’t walk a block without passing a button or t-shirt vendor (not unusual in New York City but virtually never seen here).

MSNBC live stage

Google Juice at the Big Tent