York Pride prepares for biggest LGBT+ festival yet on Saturday on Knavesmire – and look out for Georgian fan language

Angels Of The North: Headline act on the main stage at York Pride on Knavesmire on Saturday

NORTH Yorkshire’s largest LGBT+ celebration and York’s biggest free one-day festival,  York Pride 2025, takes to the streets for its biggest, boldest and most fabulous event yet on Saturday.

“We are so proud to stand together in love, solidarity and Pride,” says chair Greg Stephenson. “As we celebrate this weekend, we must also reflect. Around the world – and here in the UK ­– our trans and non-binary community is under increasing attack, facing rising hate, hostile attack, and systemic challenges.

“At York Pride, we stand proudly and unequivocally with our trans and non-binary siblings. You are loved, you are valued, and you are welcome here.

“Pride has always been a protest as well as a celebration. We march not just for ourselves, but for those who cannot.  We raise our voices for those still silenced. And we will continue to champion inclusion, equality and visibility for all members of our LGBT+ family.”

In 2024, more than 17,500 people filled the city streets for a record-breaking York Pride, and once more the festival promises to be bold, inclusive and joyful in 2025, led off by the Pride Parade that will follow a new path through the streets with an updated starting point on Parliament Street at midday.

On Knavesmire, the festival’s main stage will be headlined by Angels Of The North (6pm) and on the bill too will be Ryan Petitjean (1.10pm), tribute act Pet Shop Boys, Actually (1.35pm), Marcus Collins (2pm), Eva Iglesias (2.30pm), York drag superstar Janice D (3.35pm), La Voix (4pm), West End queen Kerry Ellis (5.15pm), The Cheeky Girls (5.35pm) and plenty more. Find the full line-up at yorkpride.org.uk/line-up.

Look out too for the Cabaret Stage, featuring PJ Taylor, Emily Moran,  Ferne Ando, Oliver James Perkins, Malin Fox, Queer Arts Rainbow Choir, The Drag Lord Victorious, Miss Kitty Lee, Coldhell, Liv Harper and 5.45pm headliners The Movement Project. 

Knavesmire will play host to a multitude of main arena stalls and tents, including the York Pride Quiet Tent, City of York Council, the Diocese of Middlesbrough LGBT Outreach, York Mind, Amnesty International York, Christians At Pride In York, Sherlock Holmes’ Imaginarium, Barnardo’s North Fostering and Adoption and York St John University.

In a new addition for 2025, York Trans Pride will have a dedicated space to celebrate trans lives through visibility, community and empowerment, supported by Generate, York LGBT Forum, The Portal Bookshop, Know York LGBT and York Pride.

Queer Arts York will play host to the Queer Arts LGBT+ Community Arts Space hub, celebrating creativity, self-expression and community connection. Expect a joyful mix of arts and crafts activities, a participatory mural, interactive workshops and creative drop-ins and moments of performance, movement and expression.

The Pride day will conclude with an Official Pre-After Party with Charra Tea, from RuPaul UK Drag Race, from 7.30pm at Yates York and the Official AfterParty at Ziggy’s (bar and lounge  from 7pm; downstairs from 10m to 4am).  

York drag act Ginger Slice and York Mansion House duty manager Rio Sambrook demonstrating Georgian fan language in the Guildhall council chamber. Look out for their demonstration at York Pride

Among the festival highlights, Rio Sambrook, York Mansion House duty manager and chair of City of York Council’s staff LGBT+ network, will be giving a demonstration of Georgian fan language to drag performer Ginger Slice at the Georgian Festival stall between 1pm and 6pm.

“Fan language was a secret code of postures and motions for communicating by using a fan, central to Georgian ball culture, as a rebellion against the repression of young women and controlling of speech and lack of a voice,” says Rio, who will be dressed in Georgian inspired costume on Saturday.

“It was a time when young women’s voices were suppressed and they couldn’t speak freely, and it’s now had a strong resurgence in the LGBTQIA community and has a strong association with drag and Pride events.”

In the mid-20th century, gay people had their own secret language, spoken during a time of oppression. “Polari” was a way to communicate discreetly with each other when homosexuality was illegal – and later too when decriminalised but hostility remained widespread in society.

“Polari is an historic mix of language that was developed by sailors, who would have spoken the language at ports,” says Rio. “It was also used by Kenneth Williams [and Hugh Paddick] for  the characters Julian and Sandy on the BBC radio show Round The Horne in the 1960s.

“Its use ended because of that, but when Princess Anne told photographers to “naff off” after falling off a horse, ‘naff’ was originally a Polari word.”

Ginger Slice chips in: “‘Drag’ originates as a Polari word too, standing for Dressed As A Girl.” Ginger, a South Yorkshire-born photographer and graphic designer, now settled in York, will be donning her 90s’ Girl Power finery at the weekend in her nod to Ginger Spice.

“There are different moves with the fan to indicate love,” says Ginger. “The full fan, spread out like a peacock, is saying ‘I’m available’. It all starts with eye contact and the fan language takes over.

“In a world obsessed with language, with so many words for everything, it’s fascinating when you take all the words out of it for sign language, because we sometimes have to try to communicate in a way that others won’t understand.”

Rio adds: “If you are trying to fix up a meeting, showing three points of the fan will indicate 3pm. If you hold the fan with the back showing, it means, ‘I never want to see you again’.  A closed fan, placed against the chest, indicates you’re in love.”

Further symbols come into play too. “It could be the colour of the handkerchief you are wearing, or which back pocket you’re wearing it in,” says Ginger. “They are like the emojis of their time.”

More Things To Do in York and beyond in 2022 as the icing man cometh. List of ingredients No. 63, courtesy of The Press

Car Park Panto’s cast dishes up a Horrible Christmas to Sunday’s drive-in audience at Elvington Airfield

AS U2 once sang, all is quiet on New Year’s Day, but Charles Hutchinson has his diary out to note down events for the months ahead.

Drive-in pantomime: Car Park Panto’s Horrible Christmas, Elvington Airfield, near York, tomorrow (Sunday,) 11am, 2pm and 5pm

BIRMINGHAM Stage Company’s Horrible Histories franchise teams up with Coalition Presents for Car Park Panto’s Horrible Christmas.

In writer-director Neal Foster’s adaptation of Terry Deary’s story, when Christmas comes under threat from a jolly man dressed in red, one young boy must save the day as a cast of eight sets off on a hair-raising adventure through the history of Christmas.

At this Covid-secure experience, children and adults can jump up and down in their car seats and make as much noise as they like, tuning in to the live show on stage and screen. Box office: carparkparty.com.

Shaparak Khorsandi: Revisiting her 1900s’ experiences in It Was The 90s! at Selby Town Hall

Looking back, but not nostalgically: Shaparak Khorsandi, It Was The 90s!, Selby Town Hall, January 22, 8pm

SHAPARAK Khorsandi, the Iranian-born British stand-up comedian and author formerly known as Shappi, tackles the celebrated but maligned 1990s in her new show, It Was The 90s!.

Back then, she flew around London with hope in her heart, a tenner in her pocket and spare knickers in her handbag. “But how does the decade of binge drinking and walks of shame look now without snakebite and black-tinted specs?” asks Shaparak, 48.

“This is a show about how we ’90s kids are looking to young people to learn how to take care of ourselves, because if you survived the car crash of being a ’90s kid, then surely Things Can Only Get Better.” Box office: 01757 708449 or selbytownhall.co.uk.

Round The Horne as re-created by Apollo Stage Company at the Grand Opera House, York

Looking back, nostalgically: Round The Horne, Grand Opera House, York, January 27, 7.30pm

FROM the producers of The Goon Show and Hancock’s Half Hour tours comes another radio comedy classic, re-created live on stage by Apollo Stage Company.

Compiled and directed by Tim Astley from Barry Took and Marty Feldman’s scripts, this meticulous show takes a step back in time to the BBC’s Paris studios to re-play the recordings of the Sunday afternoon broadcasts of Kenneth Horne and his merry crew in mischievous mood.

Expect wordplay, camp caricatures and risqué innuendos, film spoofs and such favourite characters as Rambling Sid Rumpo, Charles and Fiona, J. Peasemold Gruntfuttock and Julia and Sandy. Box office: atgtickets.com/York.

Kipps, The New Half A Sixpence Musical: Making its York debut at the Joseph Rowntree Theatre in February

Heart or head choice: Joseph Rowntree Theatre Company in Kipps, The New Half A Sixpence Musical, Joseph Rowntree Theatre Company, York, February 9 to 12, 7.30pm and 2.30pm Saturday matinee

IN the coastal town of Folkestone, Arthur Kipps knows there is more to life than his demanding but unrewarding job as an apprentice draper.

When he suddenly inherits a fortune, Kipps is thrown into a world of upper-class soirées and strict rules of etiquette that he barely understands. Torn between the affections of the kind but proper Helen and childhood sweetheart Ann, Kipps must determine whether such a simple soul can find a place in high society.

Tickets for this fundraising show for the JoRo are on sale on 01904 501935 or at josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.

Giovanni Pernice: This is him in This Is Me after his Strictly Come Dancing triumph

Strictly winner comes dancing: Giovanni Pernice: This Is Me, York Barbican, March 9, 7.30pm

GLITTER ball still gleaming, Giovanni Pernice will take to the road on his rescheduled tour after winning Strictly Come Dancing as the professional partner to ground-breaking deaf EastEnders actress Rose Ayling-Ellis.

The Italian dance stallion will be joined by his cast of professional dancers for This Is Me, his homage to the music and dances that have inspired Pernice’s career, from a competition dancer to being a mainstay of the gushing BBC show.

“Expect all of your favourite Ballroom and Latin dances and more,” says Giovanni. Tickets remain valid from the original date of June 11 2020. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.

The Script: Returning to Scarborough Open Air Theatre in July

Off to the East Coast part one: The Script, Scarborough Open Air Theatre, July 14

IRISH rock band The Script topped the album charts for a sixth time in October with their greatest hits collection Tales From The Script, matching the feats of Arctic Monkeys, Pink Floyd and Radiohead.

Those songs can be heard live next summer when lead vocalist and keyboardist Danny O’Donoghue, guitarist Mark Sheehan and drummer Glen Power return to Scarborough Open Air Theatre for the first time since June 2018.

Formed in Dublin in 2007, The Script have sold more than 30 million records, chalking up hits with We Cry, The Man Who Can’t Be Moved, For The First Time, Hall Of Fame and Superheroes. Box office: scarboroughopenairtheatre.com.

Jane McDonald: Leading the line-up at Yorkshire’s Platinum Jubilee Concert at Scarborough Open Air Theatre

Off to the East Coast part two: Jane McDonald and special guests, Yorkshire’s Platinum Jubilee Concert, Scarborough Open Air Theatre, June 4

WAKEFIELD singing star Jane McDonald will top the bill at next summer’s Scarborough celebration of Her Majesty The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee. A host of special guests will be added.

“I’m absolutely thrilled to be headlining this very special concert, and where better to be holding such a brilliant event than in Yorkshire,” she says. “Everyone knows I’m a proud Yorkshire lass, so it will be so thrilling to walk on to stage in Scarborough for these celebrations.” Box office: scarboroughopenairtheatre.com.

Paul Hollywood: Sugar-coated secrets and special surprises

The Great British Baker gets cooking: Paul Hollywood Live, Harrogate Convention Centre, October 23

GREAT British Bake Off judge, celebrity chef and cookbook author Paul Hollywood promises live demonstrations, baking tasks, sugar-coated secrets and special surprises in next autumn’s tour.

Visiting 18 cities and towns, including Harrogate (October 23) and Sheffield City Hall (November 1), Wallasey-born baker’s son Hollywood, 55, will work from a fully equipped on-stage kitchen, sharing his tricks of the trade. Tickets for a slice of Hollywood action are on sale at cuffeandtaylor.com.