Looking on the internet deeply has found these results:

There were a lot of people is the most popular phrase on the web.

There was a lot of people 136,200 results on the web	There were a lot of people 156,900,000 results on the web More popular!
Some examples and use cases from the internet:	Some examples and use cases from the internet:
Jan 28, 2011 ... The sentence might start 'there was': 'There was a lot of people' is colloquial, and not everyone likes it or think it's correct. But some people do ... It was just overwhelming, there was a lot of people there. And I don't think my dad ever did anything because it was gonna have a big crowd at his funeral or ... Aug 23, 2012 ... What would you say in the past tense: "There was a lot of people" or "There were a lot of people"? Would both be common and acceptable in ... 2 hours ago ... "There were a lot of people trying to help, there was a lot of people really trying to do something, everyone was worried and scared," said ...	raiser. There were a lot of people at the fund There were a lot of people in the park. [Scoffs] There were a lot of people at that party. There were a lot of people back then, too. I and my sister went down, and I was happy 'cause there were a lot of people. There were a lot of people at that party that night, I figured someone, took off with it, later. Once I watched a movie on TV where there were a lot of people in bus station and they didn't get to leave.

There was a lot of people

136,200 results on the web

There were a lot of people

156,900,000 results on the web

More popular!

Jan 28, 2011 ... The sentence might start 'there was': 'There was a lot of people' is colloquial, and not everyone likes it or think it's correct. But some people do ...
It was just overwhelming, there was a lot of people there. And I don't think my dad ever did anything because it was gonna have a big crowd at his funeral or ...
Aug 23, 2012 ... What would you say in the past tense: "There was a lot of people" or "There were a lot of people"? Would both be common and acceptable in ...
2 hours ago ... "There were a lot of people trying to help, there was a lot of people really trying to do something, everyone was worried and scared," said ...

raiser.
There were a lot of people at the fund
There were a lot of people in the park.
[Scoffs] There were a lot of people at that party.
There were a lot of people back then, too.
I and my sister went down, and I was happy 'cause there were a lot of people.
There were a lot of people at that party that night, I figured someone, took off with it, later.
Once I watched a movie on TV where there were a lot of people in bus station and they didn't get to leave.