What was the "weekly stampede"?

Unfortunately I caught this movie after it had already started nonetheless there was a scene near the end where the artist (Fergus?) is in his studio and suddenly he tells Julie "I forgot, today is the weekly stampede" and lots of people enter his studio. What for? They only stay a few minutes then they all leave. (The movie was on the MGM Channel this morning so it will eventually be shown again, just curious as to what the "weekly stampede" was and why it was included).