York Maze fireworks given ‘royal’ seal of approval with Queen lookalike Margaret Southcoat

Queen look-alike Margaret Southcoat with Tom Pearcy, owner of the York Maze, which will be holding a special bonfire night event Queen look-alike Margaret Southcoat with Tom Pearcy, owner of the York Maze, which will be holding a special bonfire night event

THERE was a right royal feeling in York for the second time this year as The Queen popped by in a surprise visit.

But after a number of double takes, members of the public realised all was not as it seemed as the Queen was in fact Hull-based lookalike Margaret Southcoat.

The stunt was masterminded to promote the York Maze Fireworks Spectacular on Monday, November 5, which this year has the theme Best of British. Tom Pearcy, owner of York Maze, said: “2012 has been a fantastic year with the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee and the success of Team GB at the Olympics.

“Who better to launch the fireworks than Her Majesty? Unfortunately she wasn’t available so we have the next best thing in Yorkshire’s very own Queen lookalike.

“We’re celebrating an amazing year with a spectacular bonfire night event that will showcase the best of British music. Expect rousing anthems and lots of red, white and blue. It’s also an opportunity to give those Union Jack flags another outing and come dressed in red, white and blue for the party.”

Margaret will officially open the show at the ticket-only York Maze on November 5, which will include live music from local party band HUGE, food, a beer tent and fairground rides as well as the firework display.

Comments(16)

jibber jabber says...
1:51pm Thu 18 Oct 12

Attended last years event... what a complete rip off! We paid somewhere in the region of £60 for a family of four to get in, then was robbed again once inside for over priced sub standard food, drink and fairground rides. Then to cap it all off, the firework show lasted no more than 10 minutes!

racytracy says...
2:47pm Thu 18 Oct 12

Having attended the firework display at York Maze last year as a family of 4 I certainly never paid anything like £60!! The display was out of this world and we were all entertained with the fire performers beforehand. Got my tickets for this year and can't wait!!

gibarch says...
2:53pm Thu 18 Oct 12

jibber jabber wrote:
Attended last years event... what a complete rip off! We paid somewhere in the region of £60 for a family of four to get in, then was robbed again once inside for over priced sub standard food, drink and fairground rides. Then to cap it all off, the firework show lasted no more than 10 minutes!
Can't believe we attended the same event. I wrote a comment last year about how we enjoyed it. My family and I arrived early evening last year and spent some enjoyable hours there. They had a fantastic time including eating great hog roast rolls and the fireworks were spectacular. The kids have been begging to go again this year.

We for one will be going back to York Maze Fireworks as it always well organised and family friendly.

wailingyorkwalls says...
3:01pm Thu 18 Oct 12

Sounds like "jibber jabber" is representing one of the other displays going on around here! He or she obviously never actually went to the Maze Fireworks last year as they would know it only costs £40 for a family of 4.

It seems that the success and the good value for money that the maze offers is getting the competition riled!

Our family of 4 went and we had delicious food, the fireworks were brilliant and it was a great evening out.

Woody G Mellor says...
4:53pm Thu 18 Oct 12

For years we had no fireworks. Now everyone is squabbling about which event is best! Now that's a good thing in my book.

jibber jabber says...
6:40pm Thu 18 Oct 12

wailingyorkwalls wrote:
Sounds like "jibber jabber" is representing one of the other displays going on around here! He or she obviously never actually went to the Maze Fireworks last year as they would know it only costs £40 for a family of 4.

It seems that the success and the good value for money that the maze offers is getting the competition riled!

Our family of 4 went and we had delicious food, the fireworks were brilliant and it was a great evening out.
I can honestly say we did attend last years event, the event was hosted by either radio York or minster fm and the fireworks set off by Arthur brown.

We certainly paid more than £40 to get in to the event, although on reflection £40 would have represented a more realistic figure for what little enjoyment we experienced. The fireworks were good, but as i mentioned earlier, they only lasted 10 minutes which is poor.

With regards your suggestion of writing in on behalf of possible competitors, i can assure you this year we plan to have a family bbq and shop bought fireworks in the back garden.

If you enjoyed last years event and/or plan to attend this years event then have a fun safe time, hope its better than last year, but don't say i didn't warn you.

Marie-Anne says...
7:03pm Thu 18 Oct 12

That woman looks nothing like the Queen!

Marie-Anne says...
7:03pm Thu 18 Oct 12

That woman looks nothing like the Queen!

Buzz Light-year says...
7:51pm Thu 18 Oct 12

Oh yes!
The Firework Display Promoters Battle is heating up nicely.

I thought it could become a clapometer style contest but really it's getting good, please let it degenerate into firing the whoosh bang things at each other across a field to decide it!

Mark Brayshaw says...
9:02pm Thu 18 Oct 12

wailingyorkwalls wrote:
Sounds like "jibber jabber" is representing one of the other displays going on around here! He or she obviously never actually went to the Maze Fireworks last year as they would know it only costs £40 for a family of 4.

It seems that the success and the good value for money that the maze offers is getting the competition riled!

Our family of 4 went and we had delicious food, the fireworks were brilliant and it was a great evening out.
As you will know if you look on here regularly, I am one of the few who post using my own name so I can assure you I am not 'Jibber Jabber' and their post does not in any way represent Kaboom.

Far from being riled, I have a great deal of respect for Tom as, when York had no fireworks displays and was getting criticised around the world in the media, Tom was the only one who stood up and did something about it.

It was partly out of respect for Tom that I organised Kaboom for Sunday 4th November so that I didn't interfere with Tom's plans. I genuinely believe there is room for both of us.

Good luck Tom and by the way - I think it was a top idea getting a look-a-like to promote your event! :)

BigJon says...
4:51am Fri 19 Oct 12

jibber jabber wrote:
wailingyorkwalls wrote:
Sounds like "jibber jabber" is representing one of the other displays going on around here! He or she obviously never actually went to the Maze Fireworks last year as they would know it only costs £40 for a family of 4.

It seems that the success and the good value for money that the maze offers is getting the competition riled!

Our family of 4 went and we had delicious food, the fireworks were brilliant and it was a great evening out.
I can honestly say we did attend last years event, the event was hosted by either radio York or minster fm and the fireworks set off by Arthur brown.

We certainly paid more than £40 to get in to the event, although on reflection £40 would have represented a more realistic figure for what little enjoyment we experienced. The fireworks were good, but as i mentioned earlier, they only lasted 10 minutes which is poor.

With regards your suggestion of writing in on behalf of possible competitors, i can assure you this year we plan to have a family bbq and shop bought fireworks in the back garden.

If you enjoyed last years event and/or plan to attend this years event then have a fun safe time, hope its better than last year, but don't say i didn't warn you.
Couple of corrections on both sides.....maze ticket prices....I've checked my email from last year and the adult ticket was £12.50 (and I'm guessing that, based on this years, the child was £9.50) so even if it was 4 adults going then the total cost would've been £51.50 (including booking fee).......

However I, along with many other people, went to the maze last year and thoroughly enjoyed the show....which was well over 10 minutes long....If you want proof, check out this 15 minute video on Youtube...
http://www.youtube.c
om/watch?v=L-vtoahtZ
iU

And as to having a better, cheaper, time at home....having seen the price of fireworks in the shops, and add to that the cost of the burgers, etc that you want to bbq, you'll probably find that you'll end up spening a lot more for a much less quality event.

I'm actually giving the RatRace event at the Knavesmire a go this year, simply because it's easier for me to get to than the maze (and cheaper)...though as it's on a different day, I might give the Kaboom event at Rawcliffe Park a try as well.

BigJon says...
4:54am Fri 19 Oct 12

Just wrote a long reply and the net seems to have eaten it despite saying it was accepted...

BigJon says...
5:44am Fri 19 Oct 12

BigJon wrote:
Just wrote a long reply and the net seems to have eaten it despite saying it was accepted...
oops....just took a long time to appear....

pedalling paul says...
9:14am Fri 19 Oct 12

BigJon wrote:
jibber jabber wrote:
wailingyorkwalls wrote:
Sounds like "jibber jabber" is representing one of the other displays going on around here! He or she obviously never actually went to the Maze Fireworks last year as they would know it only costs £40 for a family of 4.

It seems that the success and the good value for money that the maze offers is getting the competition riled!

Our family of 4 went and we had delicious food, the fireworks were brilliant and it was a great evening out.
I can honestly say we did attend last years event, the event was hosted by either radio York or minster fm and the fireworks set off by Arthur brown.

We certainly paid more than £40 to get in to the event, although on reflection £40 would have represented a more realistic figure for what little enjoyment we experienced. The fireworks were good, but as i mentioned earlier, they only lasted 10 minutes which is poor.

With regards your suggestion of writing in on behalf of possible competitors, i can assure you this year we plan to have a family bbq and shop bought fireworks in the back garden.

If you enjoyed last years event and/or plan to attend this years event then have a fun safe time, hope its better than last year, but don't say i didn't warn you.
Couple of corrections on both sides.....maze ticket prices....I've checked my email from last year and the adult ticket was £12.50 (and I'm guessing that, based on this years, the child was £9.50) so even if it was 4 adults going then the total cost would've been £51.50 (including booking fee).......

However I, along with many other people, went to the maze last year and thoroughly enjoyed the show....which was well over 10 minutes long....If you want proof, check out this 15 minute video on Youtube...
http://www.youtube.c

om/watch?v=L-vtoahtZ

iU

And as to having a better, cheaper, time at home....having seen the price of fireworks in the shops, and add to that the cost of the burgers, etc that you want to bbq, you'll probably find that you'll end up spening a lot more for a much less quality event.

I'm actually giving the RatRace event at the Knavesmire a go this year, simply because it's easier for me to get to than the maze (and cheaper)...though as it's on a different day, I might give the Kaboom event at Rawcliffe Park a try as well.
......and you can easily cycle to the Knavesmire event as well.

BigJon says...
9:31am Fri 19 Oct 12

PP - You can actually cycle to the maze as well.....that's how I got there the past couple of years

Tim Cronin says...
10:42am Fri 19 Oct 12

Wow! What an absolutely amazing resemblance to the Queen. I fully believed that it was actually our monarch herself. God Bless her, and all who sail in her.

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