THE Queen of the Witham Carnival Court described her crowning as “surreal” after her special day and is looking forward to the year of events ahead.

Emma Hopegood, 16, was crowned senior queen of the carnival court.

The court is made up of a number of young children and adults aged between six and 25 who are selected each year by a panel of judges including the town mayor, MP and businessmen and women.

This year, it included Farrah Lipscombe, Lily-Mae Webster, Vada-Rae Pierce, Emma Hopegood, Summer Lardner, Alesha Denney and Charlie Webster.

They are selected on personality, speech and personality, rather than a typical beauty pageant.

The aim of the court is to help guide and encourage them to grow, feel more confident as a person and enhance their personalities.

The court gets to attend about 30 to 35 events per year, including visiting other carnival parades across Essex, local events put on by the town council and invites to care homes and fetes.

Carly Victor has been court manager since 2010.

She said: "I first got involved in carnival in 1999 at 13 and soon realised how much fun it was to make new friends from different towns and attend local events representing my town.

"It taught me how to have conversations with different people and it improved my confidence and built on my personality and character.

"I had the great honour of being selected as queen in 2004 which was the best days of my life."

"I always tell people if it wasn't for the carnival I wouldn't be who I am today."

Newly-crowned senior queen Emma said: “In March 2020 I was chosen to represent the town of Witham as carnival queen, and after a long-awaited three years the carnival was finally held.

“I had waited so long to have my big day as queen that the whole event felt so surreal, from greeting visiting queens to giving speeches and being part of the procession on the day certainly kept me on my toes.

“I had so much fun interacting with the community and spending the day with my new court. This along with an excited and supportive crowd created the most perfect and unbeatable atmosphere.

“The day felt like a fairy tale and things couldn’t have played out any better.

“I thoroughly enjoyed the day and look forward to spending the year with my court attending other carnivals and functions."