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A great number of participants attending World Youth Day (WYD) consider the crowd experience as a structuring element of their pilgrimage. What is this crowd effect? How does it operate? What role does it play in young people’s lives and spiritual journey? Exploring the crowd dimension gives us the opportunity to address the specific religiosity of the WYD - a festive and transgressive experience. The celebration, together with its excesses, by contrast with normal daily activities, allows for self-renewal and a return to the essentials, invites the transformation of individuals, and offers participants an experience of the sacred.