Without question Nigel Farage was the star of the Conservative conference fringe on Monday.
Invited to speak at meetings organised by The Freedom Association, the Bruges Group and Forest, the UKIP leader was followed everywhere by a pack of journalists and photographers hungry for a good news story.
They got it at Manchester Town Hall where Farage clashed with eurosceptic Conservative MP Bill Cash in front of 300 people.
After that the circus moved on to the Bridgewater Hall where a Freedom Association event in the Barbirolli Room attracted another full house (150 people).
Finally it was on to The Comedy Store for the Forest/IEA event, A Beer and a Fag with Farage.
I can't tell you the exact number of people who were there. According to the BBC the "the small basement auditorium [was] just over half full".
In fact, the Comedy Store auditorium is larger than it looks. It has 380 seats (with another 150 on the balcony) so I reckon we had about 200 people – not bad for Nigel's third meeting of the day.
If he was tired – and he had every right to be – he did a good job of disguising the fact.
Interviewed by the IEA's Mark Littlewood, he responded well to a series of searching questions including, "Did you ever take illegal drugs as a young man?"
Unusually for a modern politician, Farage insisted his only vices had been smoking and drinking.
Sadly there wasn't time to invite him to try an e-cigarette or snus.
Instead, after yet another pint and a fag, he was gone. He had lit up (no pun intended) the Conservative conference fringe and it was time to go home.
Postscript: Boris Johnson was the star of another not-so-fringe meeting at exactly the same time that Nigel Farage was appearing at The Comedy Store.
The BBC sent reporters to both events - see Tory conference: Boris Johnson v Nigel Farage.
The Forest/IEA meeting was also filmed by a TV crew making a documentary about Farage for Channel 4.
A brief clip of Mark Littlewood on stage with Farage was featured at the start of the Daily Politics, and I understand the meeting was mentioned on both the Today programme and PM (Radio 4).
A Beer and a Fag with Farage also featured in the Huffington Post's Pictures of the Day feature.
A Reuters picture from the event was also included in a similar feature in the Guardian. See The Best Pictures of the Day and scroll down.