2011 Clacton Carnival Queen Amy Miller

Hello Everyone!

Welcome to the Clacton-On-Sea Carnival Website!

Firstly, I would like to introduce myself, my name is Amy Miller, I’m 17 years old and I am
your carnival queen for 2011. At the moment, I am attending the Colchester Institute and I am
studying a National Diploma in Dance which is a two year course. After finishing at the
institute, I am hoping to go on to either Dance College or University where I can study for a
BA Honours Dance Degree in Teaching. As I would like to become a dance teacher in the future
at a school or college.

When I am not attending college, I go to the ‘Jacqueline Annis School of Dance’ which is a
local dance school. Where I have been going, since the age of 4, while I’m there I learn many
dance styles, one of my favourites is Ballet!! The place is like my second home and we are
all like one big family.

Apart from being at Dancing or college, I work at Clacton-On-Sea golf club where I am a
waitress, I really enjoy my job and going to work.. (Most people might find me a bit
strange!!). I also love hanging out with my close friends where we can catch up as we go to
different colleges and we can’t see each other as much, which is a real shame.

Now, enough about me! I would like to introduce my beautiful princesses for this year… ‘Abbie
Mills and Cherise Symes’. I am really excited about spending time with girls throughout all
of the carnival processions, and meeting all the new courts from other towns.

I would also like to say some thank you’s, firstly to all the judges who have chosen me and
my princess to represent Clacton-On-Sea. Also Thank to everyone from the carnival committee
who organised the selection night and a big well done to Jenine, Rebecca and Teala for a
brilliant job they did last year. The last thank you I would like to give is to all my family
and friends that supported me on the night couldn’t have done it without you!

I can’t wait for Clacton carnival procession; it’s going to be the best yet!!

Hopefully, I will see you all there and don’t be shy to come and say hello!

See you soon...
Amy Miller!”


Brightlingsea Carnival – 18th June 2011 
 

As it was our first carnival, my princesses and I were very nervous when we arrived at
Brightlingsea. On arrival, we were greeted by Brightlingsea’s Carnival court who told us
about the plan of the day, after this we introduces ourselves to the other carnival courts,
Walton, Great Dunmow, Great Bentley and Coggeshall all of the girls were friendly and I can’t
wait to spend the rest of the carnivals with them. 

As we were hanging around a bit waiting for the float to arrive, me and princess decided to
have a look at the stalls and boot sale at the arena. As we were just walking back to the
car, we noticed the float arrive. Abbie, Cherice and I were really excited as and hadn’t seen
the new float yet. When it was unveiled, I was so pleased with how it look, it match our
dress perfectly, I couldn’t wait to get on it. Once we had all sat down, the judging began;
the judge was very friendly and she asked us loads of questions about our float and
ourselves.
Unfortunately, we didn’t win anything, which is a shame because I was very confident we
would.. But never mind there’s always next time! 
The weather wasn’t very polite to us for the procession, we had to sit in the car and we
could only get on the float 10 minutes before we set off for 1pm because the rain was really
heavy. As there was lots of rain, there wasn’t a great turn out in the public, but I do
appreciate all the people who did, it was a brilliant carnival. After the procession, we went
to the Brightlingsea Bowls Club and had our Queens Tea which was delicious. This was where we
all said our thank you’s, goodbye’s and departed for the car ride home to Clacton-On-Sea, I
really enjoyed the first carnival at Brightlingsea and I cannot wait until next week at Great
Bentley!!

Lastly, I would like to thank some committee members for coming to Brightlingsea and making
it happen, Debbie and Kerry; our Chaperones for the day also Brian, Sheila and Gary for
helping set up the beautiful float. A thank you to my family for coming to watch the carnival
and Abbie’s Mum for walking the whole procession in the rain, Jo was soaked!"
 
Poster Presentation – 22nd June 2011


Me and my princess attended the presentation for the winners of the poster competition, there
were many different age groups, some as young as 5. When we arrived at St. James Hall, The
girls and I had a few pictures taken before we set off to have a look at the posters the
children had created. The posters were stunning, all brightly coloured and the ones chosen
deserved to win and they defiantly fitted perfectly with the theme of the carnival
“EUROPEAN!”.

Once everyone had arrived and all the winners were there, we started with the presentations.
Cherice, Abbie and I had the chance to hand out the certificates and their winner prizes.
John Sowton was the host for the night; he gave some great speeches, introduced us to the
audience and told them all about carnival week! 

I would like to thank Lorraine and her judges for picking the winners and organising the
presentation. Also to everyone who help out with night, and made it happen, without you there
would be no presentation. THANKYOU!
 
Great Bentley Carnival – 25th June 2011


This is our second carnival, so this time me and my girls were a little bit more relax which
is good! When we arrived at Great Bentley Village Hall, we hung around with Walton’s carnival
court, Queen Hayley, her princesses Chelsie and Cerys, until we were greeted by Great
Bentley’s court. The weather wasn’t great throughout judging so we just smiled and pushed on,
our float was in between Coggeshall and Brightlingsea Courts. As the judging went on, we sat
and spoke to them and before we knew it, we won 2nd for our float, which was amazing! I was
so glad we won. But we didn’t find out queen of queens until after the procession. 

The procession started at 12pm, and the weather brighten up which was brilliant, the
procession was paraded throughout the town and we were brought up to the arena at the end.
Once we arrived in the arena, we were greeted by the commentator, who told everyone who we
were and where we was from. The girls and I got taken off the float and put on a lorry for
the rest of the prizes, which were for the majorettes, the primary school, the band,
rainbows, brownies and the guides. Finally, we got to it.. the queen of queens was about to
be announced, the pressure was on! The commentator read out that Brightlingsea Queen, Alice
had won, I was gutted! 

We were taken off the lorry to have a look around the arena before queens tea which was at
2:30pm, so we had half an hour to explore! Me and the girls went with Walton’s court to get a
drink and there we departed, we had a look at all the jewellery stalls, they were beautiful.
I had to get one! I brought a small Pandora bracelet which was handmade and I couldn’t take
my eyes off it, I had to have it! Hehe 

2:30pm arrived and we needed to meet Debbie and Nicky in the tent. Once we met our
chaperones, the food was served. The strawberries, meringues and cream were delicious and it
was accompanied by savoury foods. As everyone had finished eating, Great Bentley’s Queen said
her thankyou’s, the other courts and I said our thankyou’s to Great Bentley too. We said out
goodbyes, left the tent and went to the car for our journey home. Thank you to Debbie and
Nicky for all their help.


Witham Carnival – Saturday 9th July 2011
We arrived at Witham early in the morning and we were one of the first courts which had
arrived at the meeting place. It was nice being early because we got to see all of the other
courts, majorettes and Lorries arriving with their smiling faces! Once all of the courts had
arrived, there was about 15 in total... Which was loads!! And it was lovely to meet all of
these other new courts, which I’d never met before; the girls were all so friendly.
We were greeted by Witham’s Court and Retiring court, and they explained the plan of the day,
as the time went on and we had all the pictures done... It was time for judging!! My
princesses and I sat on the float, ready for judging, we were all nice and calm and we
schmoozed to the judges in hope that we would win. It worked! We came 3rd for Queens. I was
so pleased, i couldn’t believe it! Soon after all the prizes were given, the procession was
off to flying start. There were so many people through the town centre, it was so hard to
wave at both sides, but I’m glad there was such a good turnout.
As the carnival came to an end, we met all the courts outside the shopping mall, and then we
were paraded through the mall, and onto the field to be introduced to the public. Once this
had all finished, we were taken to a small village hall for some tea. We decided to sit with
southend; it was nice to get to them and their new court. We really got on well, we always
do!
As tea was coming to an end, we all said our thank you’s and goodbye’s and headed home, all
tired and worn out.
Once again, thank you to our chaperones for the day! :D
 
Southend Taxi Day – Wednesday 3rd August 2011
I was so excited about this outing, as I have done the southend taxi day. What happens, is
all the children who are under-privileged, disabled or have an illness come down to Clacton
for a day out to the pier. I do think this is a very amazing outing as it gives the children
to have fun, have some freedom and spend time with me, my princesses and the other courts!
The day started out with me, Abbie and Cherise arriving at the Princes Theatre at 11am, We
took our all of our belongings to the changing room for later in the afternoon. Southend and
Ashingdon’s courts had also come down to join us for the day, which was nice. The other
courts arrived about 11:45am with all the taxi’s “beeping” and “tooting” so state their
arrival. Once the girls had arrived and all the pictures had been taken with the children, we
headed to the dressing room to change into our t-shirts and then headed into town for lunch
in wimpy! Mmmm :P
Once we had all finished lunch, we eventually got to the pier, by this time we were all over
excited.. (We acted like children!). The people who had organised the event had a bit of
trouble sorted out the wristbands for the rides, but a lady sorted it all out. We had about
an hour on the rides before we needed to go back to the town hall, to change back into our
dresses for the magic show and the disco!
I must say the magic show, with Mr happy was excellent! He made so wicked balloon items, like
a motorbike and a heart, I was so impressed. The food was amazing too, especially the cakes
with butter cream icing on the top! As the day was coming to a close, me and my princess
waved off the carnival courts and all the children in the taxis! It was lovely to see all
their happy faces after a very eventful day, Thank you to all the taxi drivers, the
organisers, the chaperones and everyone else who helped out with the day!
 
Raffle Ticket Selling – Saturday 6th August 2011
We were invited to help Brenda sell her raffle tickets for “Grand Draw” which will be draw
out on Thursday 18th August, the fete and fireworks night during out carnival week! My girls
and I were picked up at quarter to 1 and were driven down to the Pavilion Fun Park on the
Upper Prom, we did have a bit of a problem with parking but it was all okay in the end.
Brenda explain to us what we had to do, and gave us loads of leaflets and raffle tickets to
sell. The selling started off slowly, and there wasn’t much selling going on, but soon the
public were asking us what we were doing, from then we started selling loads. After about an
hour or so, we went and got some doughnuts to share between the three of us.  We sold raffle
tickets for about 3 hours and sold plenty of tickets, we also heard some amazing stories from
some of the public. There was a lady who hadn’t been to Clacton since she was 18 years and
she was now 82 years old!! That’s incredible! The weather wasn’t too bad, we did feel a bit
of rain but it held off which was brilliant, I didn’t fancy getting wet today! But all in
all, it was lovely day out. Thankyou.
Clacton Carnival Street Procession – Saturday 13th August 2011

We arrived at west road car park around 3:45pm, and we were just hanging around while the
other courts, majorettes, cheerleaders and other organisations arrived with all their fancy
dress and fabulous float designs. Overall, there were about 14 different carnival courts,
some from as far as Kent! At 5:15pm, the judging had begun, and my princesses and I were
needed to hang out the trophies to winners of best themed float, queen of queens, best float
etc. As we had got to the last two trophies, it was the two for the queens; I was really
looking forward to who had won! Queen of queens was awarded to Burnham-on-crouch and best
float to Witham! Well done! 

After all the trophies and award had been handed out we were ready for the procession to
begin, throughout the procession it was so busy, it was lovely to see so many people who help
us to raise all this money for local charities and organisations. As we got pier gap, it was
a little scary as there were so many people. But everyone was shouting, cheering and the
atmosphere was wicked. At the end of the carnival, my court and all the other queens’ courts
were taken to this little church for our tea. But before all the food I had to make a speech.
It was the scariest thing I’ve ever done. I did it, and I was a little nervous however it was
all over and done with now so I can just enjoy the rest of the evening. As the evening began
to close, Miss Invicta Kent’s Court present me and my princesses with little badges as a
token of thanks. I have really enjoyed doing the carnival procession, thank you to everyone
for all their help and hard work they have all put in. Also to Nicki and Debbie for their
help chaperoning, as well to Brian and Shelia for towing us today and all the other
carnivals. Lastly to the inner wheel ladies for a wonderful tea, and all the little gifts.


Sunday Show – Sunday 14th August 2011

At 11am, we were collected by Debbie to be taken to the carnival show ground for the summer
show, when we arrived we watch all the stalls set up for day would begin. There were so many
stalls, games and fun things to do. There were also the hamster water balls, I really wanted
to have a go . 

We started selling some raffle tickets to the people who were selling items on the car boot;
me and my princesses had a good look at all things they were selling. One lady was selling
these amazing cupcakes, they were so beautifully decorated, I just wanted to eat them! Also
there was a man doing airbrush tattoos, I had to have one, so I got a little flower design on
my ankle. Throughout the day we were selling raffle tickets for our grand draw, eventually it
got to 3pm and it was time for the pet show. There were a few children who had enter, there
was some beautiful rabbits, guinea pigs, dogs and a usual pet. All the contestants were
judged, and some children won more than one rosette, and even a cup! It was nice to see that
these children want to show off their pets, I’m not surprised; they were gorgeous!!

As the weather was really hot, I began to not feel too good, so my princesses and I sat in
the shade for a while before we set off to sell more tickets. Once we had set off to the
classic cars section to sell raffle tickets, we were more interested in the cars! The cars
were so vintage but in such good condition, we got asked to have pictures with the cars by
the owners, which was exciting! At Half 4, the upbeat Beatles came on to the dream 100 stage,
and they were excellent! They sounded like the real band, I’m really glad the committee
decided to have them there. This day was lovely, nice weather, good music and happy faces;
what more could you want? Thank you for all the committees hard work today.


Donkey Derby – Monday 15th August 2011


This was the first time we weren’t required to wear our lovely dresses, which was a nice
change as all of them needed a good wash because of the Sunday show, they were so dirty.
Luckily, the weather held off as it started to get a bit cloudy, even though it was nice and
warm in the day. The girls and I decided to have our face painted because we didn’t have our
dress on, we all had masquerade mask. Abbie had blue and green, Cherise had red and blue and
I had pink and purple! 

Once it got to 6:40pm, we were called into the arena to start the first race at 6:45pm. For
the first race and the others to come, all the donkeys were paraded around and all name so
everyone knew who they were betting on. Soon after the race had begun, and a winner was
announced, each winner won a rosette, a prize and was required to come back for the final
with all the winners. There was also a hobby horse race with all the dads, it was funny to
watch them race on wooden horses. 

As the evening came to a close, the clouds had got bigger, it was grey and gloomy. I think we
all got home just in time, but overall it was a eventful evening and I enjoyed watching the
children race the donkeys. Thank you to Hunts Racing Donkeys for all their help also to the
committee for keeping the donkeys in line, hehe! 


Sandcastle Competition – Wednesday 17th August 2011 

Luckily, the weather was dry and not raining, so there were loads of children arriving in
preparation for the sand castle competition. As the children had signed into their categories
(6 and under, 7-9, 10-14 and pairs), the children were given a flag to put in their
sandcastle and they were required to wear a yellow wristband so we knew that if they got
lost, that they could be taken back to the beach we were on. Me, Abbie and Cherise held out
with putting the wristbands on the children. At 10:30am, I rung the bell for the competition
to start, unfortunately some of the children hadn’t signed in yet, but they had an hour to
build so there was no lost. 

During the time that the children were building sand castles, a man from BBC Essex radio
interviewed me about the carnival sandcastle competition. It was a bit scary as no one had
warned me that he was going to interview me, but it went okay, I never got to hear myself
though. Me and the girls took a walk on to the beach to have a look at the sandcastles being
built, I must say the children’s ideas were very inventive, one young lady had use food
colouring to change the colour of the sand which is amazing, I would have never have thought
of that.

Once, we had a look, we were invited to do the judging. Me and Debbie did the pairs and the
10-14’s and Abbie and Cherise did the 6 and under and 7-9’s. As we had verified our decision
with our partners and headed back up to the lower prom, Susan had organised a hoola hoop
competition, so my girls and I went up to show them all how to do it! Every child who had a
go but didn’t win got a sweetie and the winner got a big packet of malteasers which are my
favourite! After this little competition the winners of the sandcastle competition was
announced. Each age group got a Bronze, Silver or a Gold medal winner and they stood on boxes
to represent they had won, just like the Olympics!


Egg Throwing Competition/Beer Dig – Wednesday 17th August 2011

Egg throwing is one of my favourite events that happen in carnival week because you get to
see people get covered in egg! When we arrived, it was a little cold but nothing too bad, as
always we started selling raffle tickets until the first throwing started. Abbie and her
friend Chloe had a go at egg throwing, as for me and Cherise it wasn’t our sort of thing, I
didn’t fancy getting egg on me! There was about 6 or 7 rounds of egg throwing and two couple
who won that round went into a semi-final and if they won that in two the final. In the final
there was a about 4 couples left, and it was two men who had won, the winners received
£25.00!

As the committee organisers were clearing and setting up the arena for the beer dig, Abbie
went over a played a little volleyball, while Cherise and I sat inside the undercover part as
the weather started to look a little grey. Soon after it started to rain as the beer dig
started, we had to wait outside for the main prize to be won in the beer dig. By this time,
we were freezing and wet, I just wanted to go home in the warm, and luckily the special prize
was found quite quickly. So Debbie took us home, Abbie went home with her mum and dad. Thank
you to all the committees work even though it rained!


Fete and Fireworks – Thursday 18th August 2011 

Unfortunately, it was raining, very cold and we weren’t allowed to wear out dresses in case
the rain ruined them. Instead we wore our carnival t-shirts, jumpers and black trouser, I put
my wellington boots on as I didn’t want to get wet and muddy feet! At the start of the
evening we sat in the sweet tent so we didn’t get wet until the people had arrived, once it
turned to 7pm we were set out to the main gates to sell raffle tickets. In the 45 minutes we
stood there, we only had 2 groups of people come in, so I was on the raffle selling, Abbie
and Cherise were picking blackberries! 

After a while, we got too cold so we went to back to the main tent and were taken to sit in
one of the containers to warm up with a hot drink! Abbie’s Mum and dad sat in the container
with us and poured us all a cup of hot chocolate! Mmmmm 

Debbie decided to take us all home and there was no point in us getting too cold, I couldn’t
wait to get in and have a hot bath, I was freezing. In the end, the fireworks had to be
cancelled, which is a real shame and so much hard work has gone into this day, thank you for
all your hard work!


Fancy Dress Competition – Friday 19th August 2011

At this part of the week, I’m very tired and luckily it wasn’t an early start. We all were
picked at 1pm and taken to St. James church hall next to the west cliff theatre, and there we
met by Brenda, Nicki and all the judges. To start the afternoon, we blew some balloons up as
we were bored, but the parents and their children started to arrived in some magnificent
fancy dress out fits! One young lady had dress up as Big Ben, using a long cardboard box, it
was so inventive. Each age group was called out under 5, 5 to 7 and 8-11, also there were
categories for theme and pairs. In each age group and theme group there was about 10 people,
but unfortunately in the pairs category there was only two pairs, one was the super Mario
brothers and the others were French people. Before all the judging started the princesses and
I were required to sell raffle tickets for our raffle to be called out at the end of the all
the prizes to be given to the winners. 

Once all the judges had made their decisions who had won each category, there was a small
disco with DJ dragon for DREAM 100, we all had so many photos with him! I love him! 

The disco come to an end and the winners were announced, 1st, 2nd, 3rd and each winner got a
voucher for rascals play centre in each category. When all the prizes had been given out the
raffle was being called out, there were so many prizes and it seemed like it went on forever.
But after it had all finished we got to go home for a little rest until the quiz night later.


Quiz Night - Friday 19th August 2011 

So this was the last night of the amazing Clacton carnival week, quite sad actually, I didn’t
think it would fly through quite so quickly. As we always do, we sold our last ever batch of
raffle tickets to the all the tables, there was so many teams we had to split up in two
groups. Some of the team’s names were so funny, mine and Abbie’s parents attended the evening
and their team name was “the royal family”. So once we had finished selling the raffle
tickets, the quiz had begun, with wonderful Adrian’s questions, I really did wonder how he
thought of these questions. After set of questions, my princess, Debbie and I had to collect
the answer papers and any jokers that were being play in the next round. (Joker’s in rounds,
double your points)

Overall there was a break in between the two sets of questions; in that break we had to sell
raffle tickets at least it gave us something to do, instead of just eating our food. After
all the winners had been announced and we had given the losers prize, the winners prize and
had a picture with the winner, it was time for another raffle, The raffle prizes were bottles
of wine, a photo album, bath sets etc. As the evening began to close, John Sowton came up to
say a few thankyou’s, to all the scorers, Adrian and everyone who had came, Also he gave Me,
Abbie and Cherise our cheques for being the carnival court of the year! 

I had a few announcements to make too, so Adrian had passed me the microphone, I was so
scared! So basically (before I start to blabber on), I thanked Debbie and Nicki for all their
help throughout Carnival week and all the other carnivals we have attended, my girls
presented them with flowers and presents. 
It was sad that carnival week had come to an end, but it was a wicked week. Hope you all
enjoyed yourselves!  
Walton-On-The-Naze Carnival – Saturday 20th August 2011

OUR LAST EVER CARNIVAL!!

Now, this was a little emotional for me as it was going to be the last day, I would ever get
to sit on that float again being queen! But I was going to enjoy the day and hopefully win
something for the end of a fantastic year!

As we arrived for 11:15am, there was only Clacton’s court and Brightlingsea’s court so we
spent a while talking to them until the other courts arrived. In the end there was Clacton,
Brightlingsea, Braintree, Coggeshall and Great Bentley, this was because it was Southend-On-
Sea’s carnival too, so most would have attended theirs. My princess and I sat on the float
having a munch of food as always, and then Debbie had noticed the judges coming over so we
sat patiently and the lady asked about our float, she said it was beautifully decorated and
very bright!

So as we waited for the results, I was getting more and more anxious to find out! Then I saw
Walton’s queen come over with two trophies coming close to us... I had won Queen of Queens,
the first time this year; we had one trophy to keep and one to give back next year. As we
were celebrating, we were awarded again with the best float award, four trophies... I just
couldn’t believe it. I was so shocked how well we did; it was a great finish to the year! At
it got to 2pm, the procession had started, we place all four trophies at the front of the
float and by this time all three of us were buzzing with happiness.

As we paraded through the town, it was so nice to let everyone see that we had won today! I
was so smiley, I couldn’t stop, even though Walton’s carnival was a long one. When the
carnival came to a end, we were taken to the Naze Marine Holiday Park for our tea, the was
nice but there wasn’t much of it, so I was still a little hungry!

But as it was our last carnival, we all really enjoyed the day and were very glad that we
won!