MANCHESTER – Sen. Barack Obama's upcoming campaign rally with TV icon Oprah Winfrey is shaping up to be one of the largest events in New Hampshire primary history.

Campaign officials said they have given away about 10,000 tickets to the Sunday night rally, enough to fill the Verizon Wireless Arena in downtown Manchester. An arena spokesman said the crowd size will be comparable to concerts by Justin Timberlake, Aerosmith and Neil Diamond.

"There's that awe factor," spokesman Jason Perry said. "It's Oprah, one of richest people in the world, coming to Manchester."

Obama spokesman Reid Cherlin said the ticket supply dried up 24 hours after the first tickets became available early this week. Since Tuesday, the campaign has been directing people who don't have tickets to add their name to a waiting list on the campaign's New Hampshire web site (nh.barackobama.com/oprah_waitlist).

Winfrey will make four campaign appearances with the Democratic senator this weekend, including stops in Iowa and South Carolina. Demand in the Palmetto State proved so high that the campaign relocated the event from the 18,000-seat Colonial Center in Columbia to the Williams-Brice football stadium, which can hold more than 80,000 people.

Winfrey's public appearance in New Hampshire will be a first for the daytime talk-show queen, who endorsed Obama for President in May.

Robin Comstock, president of the Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce, said she has tried to lure Winfrey to New Hampshire before but was never successful. This weekend's rally, she said, is "bigger than huge."

"I'm trying like the devil to get there myself," Comstock said. "If you find a way, give me a call."

Garth Corriveau, 31, a Manchester Democrat and Obama supporter, said he got two tickets: one for himself and one for his mother, Beatrice. She's undecided but says she watches Oprah about three times a week.

"This is the biggest thing to happen in New Hampshire," Garth Corriveau said. "People are going to be talking about this for years."

The rally may be the biggest campaign event in a New Hampshire primary since Bill Clinton, then the sitting President, campaigned in Keene in February 1996. That event drew about 10,000 people.

Events leading up to the general election have drawn larger crowds. About 13,000 supporters came out to cheer Sen. John Kerry two days before the 2004 election. President Bush spoke to about 5,000 of his supporters at the Verizon Wireless Arena the previous week.

Dante Scala, a political science professor at the University of New Hampshire, said Obama will get a double dose of local and national attention from the Winfrey events. He may even gain some votes, although Scala said he expects the impact will be limited.

"I still think what happens in Iowa after Christmas will have more of an effect than Oprah will," Scala said.

Ticket distribution for the Manchester rally went through each of Obama's 16 New Hampshire campaign offices and through various campaign steering committees, Cherlin said. The campaign also offered tickets on its Web site and gave others to known supporters and undecided voters, he said.

Manchester Police Capt. Rick Reilly said security in the arena will include a supervisor and four officers, as is typical for events at the Verizon. Three more officers will be stationed outside to direct traffic.