One of the largest groups marching was Nike employees. In 2011, there were 110 entries in the parade, and the police estimated the crowd size at more than 25,000. In 2003, an estimated 1,000 people marched in the parade while more than 50,000 people dropped in on the two-day festival at Waterfront Park. An estimated 20,000 people turned out for the 1998 Pride parade. Since 1994, the Portland Pride Festival is organized by Pride Northwest, Inc. The Lesbian and Gay Pride Parade changed in 1997 to the Lesbian, Gay, Bi and Trans Pride Parade. In 19, 10,000 participated and/or attended. The 1991 parade was the largest in history at that point, with more than 6,000 marchers, including supporters from small Oregon towns. It was renamed in 1982 Lesbian and Gay Pride Week, with more than 2,000 men and women taking to the streets of downtown Portland. Portland’s first Gay Pride parade took place 2 years after in 1977. By the early 1980s, Portland’s Pride celebration had become an annual tradition, becoming summer’s unofficial kickoff.
Pride has been celebrated in Portland since 1975. A small group of 200 people marked the Rose City’s first public and outdoor Gay Pride celebration, in the South Park Blocks near Portland State University.
