Crowds

A public can also be a second thing: a concrete audience, a crowd witnessing itself in visible space, as with a theatrical public. Such a public also has a sense of totality, bounded by the event or by the shared physical space. A performer onstage knows where her public is, how big it is, where its boundaries are, and what the time of its common existence is. A crowd at a sports event, a con­cert, or a riot might be a bit blurrier around the edges but still knows itself by knowing where and when it is assembled in com­mon visibility and common action.

Michael Warner - Publics and Counterpublics, page 66.