I'd estimate attendence to have been at least ten to fifteen thousand.
The demo was announced as a rally starting at 1:00 P.M. followed by a march at 1:30 P.M. Now these things never go off on schedule; but there was an aggrevating circumstance.
The sound system was especially bad, even by political rally standards. About ten percent of the crowd had their ears absolutely blasted; it sounded as though someone was shouting in your ear these "lucky" areas. For the 90% of the crowd, volume was normal, but you could not understand anything anyone was saying. So for most the crowd , the speeches were like the adults in the Peanuts films - Wah Wah Wah Wah. To be absolutely honest, it might have sounded that way even if you could understand the speakers.
So the crowd was very patient with the WahWahWahWah from 1:00 P.M to 1:30 P.M. After all, that was according to schedule. And they tolerated it until 1:45 P.M. But at a quarter till 2:00, a small group at the fringe of the crowd began chanting "March! March! March!".
The MC calmly said she appreciated how eager everyone was to march, and put on two more speakers. By the time the first of the two finished, I think about a quarter of the crowd was chanting "March! March! March!", and suspect the majority of the rest were in sympathy. The next speaker gained quiet by:
A) Promising to be the last speaker,
B) Promising to speak briefly,
C) Promising that the march would begin immediately after her speech ending,
D) Being a decent speaker - who enuciated so clearly you could understand her even with the awful sound system,
E) Being a high school student.
Once the march began (around 2:00 P.M.) it really was a lot of fun. I always enjoy the giant puppets in these things. And clever costumes and such.
There was a great Bush puppet, fronted by a Cheney mask. There was the sign Dick (picture of Dick Cheney) + Tater (picture of potato) = Dictator (picture of bush). There were movie poster takeoff, taken off the Internet. There were the anti-war cheerleaders. The were the dogs of peace.
It was a diverse group. Like the larger DC rally, lots of Church ladies, lots of vets, lots of people tying the anti-war movement to diverse causes, single payer supporter, gay rights supporters, Venzuela solidarity people, Jubilee (forgive the dept) people, feminists groups, some trade unionist, black clad anarchists, Islamic groups. A fair number of people of color (for Portland). Ages varied too. Lots of young couples with babies, middle aged people with children. Lots of college age kids. Some very visible seniors. Enough disabled that they were actually a visible percent of the crowd, though I'm pretty sure, not in proportion to their presence in the population. Not as many high school kids as Max described in the Washington Rally, but some. And the usual Marxist grouplets, conspiracy theorists, And Green and Democratic locals.
I contributed a bit to the diversity myself with a "Geeks Against the War" - sign - dressed of course in my best geek work clothes.
There was another post-marich rally. I'm afraid I can't tell you anything about that, because having attended the first rally, and then marched, I saw no reason to stay for more.