While the Gion Festival is a festival for the general public, it is one of sanchokusai (three great festivals designated by Japan's imperial court), together with the festivals of Iwashimizu Hachimangu Shrine and Kasuga Taisha Shrine, and it became an event of the Kamo clan and the Imperial court which court nobles visited and enjoyed, and it then became a festival for the court nobles.
石清水八幡宮、春日大社と共に三勅祭の一つであり、庶民の祭りである祇園祭に対して、賀茂氏と朝廷の行事として行っていたのを貴族たちが見物に訪れる、貴族の祭となった。