Keith Bardascino may be only 25, but the North Andover resident is part of the younger generation that would rather spend a rainy afternoon listening to leaders of the Tea Party movement than watching episodes of MTV’s “Jersey Shore.’’

Bardascino was among about 200 people gathered yesterday at the Great Hall in Faneuil Hall for the fourth annual Boston Tea Party, featuring several speakers, including Gary Johnson, a former governor of New Mexico.

Bardascino said he became interested in the movement around the time US Representative Ron Paul sought the 2008 Republican nomination for president. He lamented that as the movement has become more mainstream, its message has been “diluted by an infiltration by political powers that really aren’t looking out for our best interests, basically just seeing an opportunity to get in there, seeing the passion in people’s hearts, and taking advantage of it.’’

Still, he sought to be inspired by the event’s speakers, specifically by Federal Reserve opponent G. Edward Griffin.

Griffin received thunderous applause after he dumped a paper symbolizing the Fed into a wooden crate emblazoned with the words “East India Co. Tea,’’ the product that was dumped into Boston Harbor during the Boston Tea Party protest on Dec. 16, 1773.

“Being here, being in the presence of a bunch of like-minded people is a breath of fresh air,’’ Bardascino said. “It’s nice just to see the turnout and be among brilliant minds.’’

Event organizer Bob Dwyer, a founding member of the Massachusetts Liberty Preservation Association, said Faneuil Hall provided the appropriate backdrop for the event and its message to “preserve liberty and protect the Constitution.’’

For Dwyer, the growth of the movement is a positive.

“The Tea Party movement is basically mainstream America saying, ‘We’ve had enough,’ ’’ Dwyer said.

“I think the shift is happening. We’re starting to get rid of the one-party politics in the state . . . so there’s a shift happening here in Massachusetts.’’

Johnson, a Republican held up as a possible presidential candidate in the 2012 election, said events like yesterday’s “put a voice over what I think is the national outrage over being bankrupt.’’

“I believe we’re on the verge of an imminent financial collapse and that we should be balancing the budget tomorrow,’’ he said.

State Senator Robert L. Hedlund, a Hingham Republican who is the minority whip, said the Tea Party movement is not just an ideology, but a “practical application to taking those beliefs and putting them forward in the political arena.’’

Katheleen Conti can be reached at kconti@globe.com.

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