Meanwhile, subordinates carry out functions that previously required mass attendance in a centralised fortress - office, school or hospital - efficiently while hardly ever actually having to go there.

Sources are quoting a drop in attendance of 0,5% yearly and in 1998 (the last year during which mass attendance was measured), attendance was just above 11%.

In the days before mass attendances at football matches, races on the river were enormously popular, with tens of thousands attending.