Social Class and Bar Behavior During an Urban Festival

Very little seems to be known about who actually participates in "community" festivals. Social scientists as well as laymen apparently assume that people generally, regardless of status in the community, more or less participate in and benefit from such festivals. In discussing crowds in general, for example, Davis states: "The individuals who constitute any particular crowd ... are together by accident. . . . Having no organization and being ephemeral, the crowd does not select its participants .... Necessarily, the members ... are drawn from all walks of life and are present in the situation only because, in pursuing their private ends, they have to make use of common conveniences ... " (italics added). And in their view of "conventional crowds" (including institutionalized festivals), Killian and Turner state that these " ...function in facilitating the resolution of cultural confiict," thereby implying that community solidarity is temporarily restored.