This is very far from the truth. Pageants, parades, and processions are important in the short term because they take over public space and transform it into a place in which anything can happen - dragons, giant goldfishes, purple people. A Puppet Procession does that - and not just that. With puppets, anything can happen. A space people walk through everyday in their daily lives suddenly becomes completely other, and people can see that they can make anything they want of their own home.
Puppets can make thoughts real.
The arts at present seem to be largely divided into Low Arts like the movies and TV which are expensive to make, technical, and centralized, and High Arts which are produced and exhibited in a way which is quite detached from the community. Outdoor performances like the puppet processions, on the other hand, are responsive to the community in a very particular way which has to do with the experience of performing out of doors. Street performance is amazingly intense, not so much for the audience as for the performer. It can be very difficult. People find it easy to walk away, and being walked away from on the street is incredibly painful.