Kamala Harris and Tony Goldwyn appear

Kamala Harris kicked off her convention Monday night with a brief appearance, causing a jolt of excitement among the Democratic delegates in attendance.

“This is going to be a great week!” Harris said before thanking President Joe Biden, who will speak later Monday evening. “We are eternally grateful to you.”

Harris’ performance followed a short biographical video narrated by Jeffrey Wright and accompanied by Beyonce’s song “Freedom.”

The vice president then made way for host Tony Goldwyn, the actor who played the president on the ABC show “Scandal.” Goldwyn was among a handful of entertainers on stage, following Jason Isbell, who sang “Something More Than Free,” and Mickey Guyton, who performed “Ain’t We All American?” sang.

Goldwyn promised that the week would provide an introduction to Harris and a clear contrast between Donald Trump’s agenda and her vision of the future.

“It’s a message that is upbeat, not mean-spirited,” Goldwyn said. “Public service – no self-service, optimism and opportunity, no chaos and division. It is a message that has made us aware of who we are.”

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was one of the most anticipated speakers on the program. Earlier in the day, Donald Trump’s campaign attempted to link Harris to Ocasio-Cortez’s positions on issues such as defunding the police and the Green New Deal.

When it was her turn to speak, Ocasio-Cortez wasted no time in attacking Trump as a plutocrat.

“I’m tired of hearing a union buster consider herself more of a patriot than the woman who fights every day to pull working people out from under the boots of greed that is trampling our way of life. she said. “The truth is, Don, you can’t love this country if all you do is fight for the rich and big corporations. Loving this country means fighting for all the people, working people, everyday Americans.”

Spotted in the basement of the United Center were Marisa Tomei, JJ Abrams and producer Bruce Cohen. They said they had “high expectations” for the campaign. Abrams and his wife, Katie McGrath, have donated more than $3 million to Democratic committees this cycle. Cohen is also a prolific donor.

James Taylor is also scheduled to perform, leading into Biden’s speech.

As Democrats prepared for opening night, downtown Chicago was humming Monday with flags, bunting, bootleg T-shirt sellers and all the usual trappings of a political circus coming to town.

Delegates from across the country took time to look around the city tonight before the important speech at the United Center. A rally in support of Palestinians in Gaza drew about 15,000 people, organizers from the Coalition to March on the DNC told ABC News Chicago.

But overall, the downtown scene seemed calm. Farther south, near the warren of hotels housing delegates, the scene was quiet, even outside the gleaming silver Trump Tower that overlooks the city’s Riverwalk.

Another center of activity was on the city’s east side, in the sprawling McCormick Place center, which hosted the DemPalooza showcase featuring an array of left-wing organizations and causes. There were stages for discussions and questions and answers, but these were sparsely attended. The five-mile distance between McCormick Place and the United Center has obvious safety and crowd control benefits. But it also makes visitors highly dependent on the DNC shuttles that run between the hotels and the two locations. The security perimeter around United Center is so large that rideshare and even public transit riders can’t get too close.

Elections are often defined in slogans and many slogans were seen on delegates’ lapels, polo shirts and blouses, from ‘Remember January 6’ to ‘Keep Kamala and Carry On’, ‘Another Cat Lady for Kamala’ and ‘Make Liinging ‘. Wrong again.”