Based on the text, you have to extract the number of participants.

Before providing the final result, please think through the following steps:
1. Carefully read the input text and identify any mentions of the number of participants.
2. Verify that the number of participants is a numerical value and not a textual description.
3. Ensure that the extracted number is the total number of participants, not a partial count or a range.

Structure the output like this:
Number of participants without separator

This is an example of output:
** NUMBER OF PARTICIPANTS ** \n
1500

Once you have completed the thinking process, provide the number of participants in the format specified above.