THOUSANDS of people joined York Pride over the weekend – and the event made history by including students and teachers from every state school in the city.

The parade began outside York Minster on Saturday, where it was kicked off with a message from legendary actor Sir Ian McKellen in a video link and an address from York’s Lord Mayor Barbara Boyce. The rainbow flag was then carried through the city to Knavesmire.

This year made history as all of the city’s secondary schools were represented in the parade. Organisers of York Pride said they believed it was the first time in the world that an LGBT Pride event had achieved the full inclusion of its local schools.

Sir Ian praised their participation as “enterprising”, while Greg Stephenson, chairman of York Pride, said it was “absolutely incredible”.

The event had been backed by many of the city’s main employers including Nestle, Sainsbury’s, Virgin Trains East Coast, the city’s universities and the City of York Council, along with main sponsors Aviva and many of their staff joined the parade.

Baroness Lynne Featherstone also travelled to York to march with local Lib Dems and spoke about her work in getting equal marriage laws through Parliament. The parade culminated on Knavesmire for a celebration including a fairground and live music from S-Club Party.