Madrid's Pride Parade began in 1977, in the Chueca neighbourhood, which also marked the beginning of the gay, lesbian, transgender, and bisexual rights movement after being repressed for forty years in a dictatorship. This claiming of LGBT rights has allowed the Pride Parade in Madrid to grow year after year, becoming one of the best in the world. In 2007, this was recognised by the European Pride Owners Association (EPOA) when Madrid hosted Europride, the Official European Pride Parade. It was hailed by the President of the EPOA as "the best Europride in history". In 2017, Madrid celebrated the 40th anniversary of their first Pride Parade by hosting the WorldPride Madrid 2017. Numerous conferences, seminars and workshops as well as cultural and sports activities took place at the festival, the event being a "kids and family pride" and a source of education. More than one million people attended the pride's central march. The main purpose of the celebration was presenting Madrid and the Spanish society in general as a multicultural, diverse, and tolerant community. The 2018 Madrid Pride roughly had 1.5 million participants.p. 34