There was an event outside of the state Capitol and Honolulu Hale on Thursday that drew about four times more than the state and city government-mandated limit of 25 attendees.

But everyone was masked and vaccinated — and registered, just in case the dreaded contact tracing might be needed.

“All we want to do is show we know how to put on events, safely,” said Alan Sunio, race director of the Great Aloha Run for 23 years and one of the organizers of the Hawaii Events Coalition’s “Enough is Enough” rally.

They had thought about calling it off. Word was getting around earlier this week that the battle was on the verge of being won, and the rally would be unnecessary.

But it’s good they went through with this unique protest. Sunio was one of five certified COVID compliance officers on hand to ensure appropriate pandemic protocols were followed during the rally. That helped prove one of their main points: Professional event managers can be trusted to prioritize safety.

“Safety is part of our culture,” said compliance officer Kalani Rodrigues of Hawaii Stage and Light, who is also a season-ticket holder for University of Hawaii football.

“There’s no good reason on God’s green earth that you can’t fit 500 or a thousand people in there safely,” he said, speaking of the 9,000-seat Clarence T.C. Ching Athletics Complex, where UH has played its first three games this fall in front of empty stands.

The group left with a promise from Mayor Rick Blangiardi of good news coming on the horizon: Gov. David Ige had finally agreed to ease restrictions on events and would announce them today. Some would start Oct. 13, some on Oct. 20.

“Event” covers a very wide range of activities. In this case, we’re talking businesses directly affected by the pandemic-related rules that don’t allow them to bring customers together — and aren’t classified “essential” by the government, as restaurants are, for example.

UH sports, especially its football team, is the highest-profile of these activities that have been bleeding out for coming up on two years now. There are others, though, that many people consider just as important or more so, especially those whose livelihoods are at risk or worse because of so much lost business.

Those activities are important in the big picture, too, because of how much the state’s economy is affected.

We didn’t just lose the freedom to watch sports in person, we lost big concerts and huge conventions. Smaller ones, too, and it all adds up — plus the businesses that service the events.

Blangiardi only mentioned UH briefly Thursday, but he did utter the magic number we’ve been hearing all week: 1,000. That’s how many spectators various reports and sources say will be allowed at the Warriors’ next home football game. It’s not a lot, but it’s a thousand more than any of the three previous games this season.

It works out well that UH has a bye this week and then a road game at Nevada, after which the city and county’s second 28-day gathering restriction order ends, before Hawaii hosts New Mexico State on Oct. 23.

Del Ching couldn’t wait.

The longtime UH football season-ticket holder went to lower campus Saturday, intending to watch the Warriors play Fresno State. He found a nice spot near the Stan Sheriff Center from where you can see the football field.

“But I was told to leave,” said Ching, who was among those attending Thursday’s rally. “They said I have to get off the premises. I can’t believe they cleared it out like that.”

That was before the mayor came out and promised better days ahead, starting today.

Blangiardi said he was impressed that the person who gave him a bullhorn to use ensured him it had been sanitized.

After about 20 minutes, there was applause and hip-hip-hoorays for the mayor.

“They came, I listened to them, they listened to me and we kept it positive,” he said. “Solution-oriented.”

But now comes the even harder parts, like hashing out nitty-gritty details and evaluating how slowly or quickly to re-open various events. And there’s work to do to regain the confidence of those who have taken their business elsewhere.

“I want to go slow to go fast,” said Blangiardi, who repeatedly warned that caution is still important, and the Department of Health still has a say.