This year’s York Pride event took place on Saturday 1st of June. People from all over the North of England turned up to take part in the parade, a 2.4-mile (3.9km) walk across the city, followed by a festival.
The parade started in Dunscombe Place, just outside of the York Minster at 12 p.m. and ended at the main festival site on the Knavesmire.
The parade was free and open to everyone. The police, ambulance services, and firefighters participated, as did several religious communities, such as the Southlands Methodist Church which had several representatives handing out lollypops to the walkers.
Several primary schools and York sports teams were also in attendance. Kate from the York RI Women’s Rugby Union Club commented that the parade “celebrates inclusion in every sense of the word.” These different communities came together to ensure that members of the LGBTQ+ community feel safe, heard and included.
Drag Queen Donna Carer said “it’s important to come together as a big group and celebrate who we are, all of our differences”.
Tim, another spectator of the parade and LGBTQ+ ally, said “It’s really important to support the different communities and people haven’t necessarily got that many places to go and be themselves in York since it’s a fairly small city.” He adds, “it’s really important for somewhere like York to do this.”
Drag Queen Luna Hex has attended York Pride for the past three years. She said, “every year it’s beautiful, like the turnout just gets more and more every year.” I asked her if there was anything different about this year’s York Pride events. She answered, “there’s a lot more representation of the local drag artists on the main stage this year. I feel like that was missing in previous years, but this year there’s a real celebration of local queer talent and that makes me really happy like seeing us get celebrated…to have that representation on the main stage this year, it’s a blessing”.
After the parade, the pride festival took place for the rest of the afternoon. People were free to enjoy the fairground rides, live music by local drag queens and back-to-back comedy sketches.
One such performer was Jay, who read a collection of original spoken poems. When asked why he thinks York Pride is important, he answered: “I think it gives people a voice, you know.”
“Pride was a protest originally. You know, the very first pride was a protest so actually, having this space so that people’s voices can be heard is a really important factor.
“Of course today, pride is not a protest – it’s a celebration and that’s wonderful, but there also needs to be, woven into that fabric, some element of ‘there’s still a fight’ and we’re still working towards equality and equity and inclusion”.