People in the audience at the Miss California Pageant take turns being boisterous when a favorite contestant appears.

The blasts of air horns have echoed through the theater. People wave pompoms and glow sticks, and some hold up homemade signs.

Miss Santa Clara Erin Bolhurst has supporters who took her photograph, put purple garland around it and attached it to sticks. Patti Bowling of Santa Clara, who holds one of the signs, said before the show started that she could feel excitement in the building. Nerves, too.