Plymouth Twestival is Unleashed! by Lynne Mashhadi 30/03/2010
30/03/10 - On Thursday night I attended the Plymouth Twestival, the first of it's kind. A charity fundraiser, arranged on Twitter, held in Plymouth.
I was interested to meet my fellow Tweeters, many of whom I only knew from their photos and tweets on Twitter, and also to see what the festival itself was like after all the build up.
Plymouth Argyle had kindly donated their hospitality suite, and despite the typical rain and wind, there was a good turn out.
When we arrived it was fun to try and spot people from their profile pictures. Some of them looked just like their photos, and others you wouldn't recognise in a million years (do they use their own photos?)
There was a giant Scalextric lent by sponsors 'What A Giggle' set up at one end, raffle prizes, and a weird and wonderful selection of goods which were to be auctioned off later in the evening. The lots varied from a leather corset, to a vibrant painting by another sponsor, local artist Martin Bush.
People milled around talking and making a run on the bar, and there was a great atmosphere as many felt they already knew each other, even if they had never met in the flesh before, as they had been chatting on Twitter.
The festival wasn't exclusively for Twitter users, but I'm guessing that those not on Twitter probably felt a bit left out! Twitter is certainly a great way to meet local, and not so local, people.
Three local bands were there to entertain the crowd. My husband and I had to leave early as we were double-booked, but we enjoyed the first band 'Francis and the Drakes', who we had never listened to before but would certainly see again.
We unfortunately had to leave before the start of the auction, presided over by local celebrity Graham Barton, but I gather it was a great success. The Twestival as a whole has raised over 5,600 pounds for the charity 'Concern Worldwide'. With more coming in daily, this is set to grow and it has made Plymouth's Twestival in the top 3 in the UK! A lot of hard work went into the organising the Twestival, but I'm sure the organisers will feel it was worth it, when they were there on the night.
As we left, we saw a fleet of Dominoes employees, literally staggering under the weight of giant piles of pizzas, which Dominoes had donated for the evening, and some lucky person was going to win their height in pizza boxes. I have never seen so much pizza before!
If you feel you missed out, then you're right! However there is likely to be local Twestival in the autumn, and who knows what will be organised this time next year.
Lynne has lived in Plymouth for nearly 20 years, and wouldn't live anywhere else.
The Plymouth Blog is where she talks about things that are happening in Plymouth and how they affect the people who live here. She's lived in Luton, London, Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, Cardiff and Bristol, but chose to come and live in Plymouth over 20 years ago because she saw what a great place it is.
You can follow Lynne on Twitter - @plymouthblog
Everything she says here is her opinion, so feel free to agree or disagree with her views! You can add your comments, using the form below.
Links:
What Do You Think? Leave your comment about this blog post here:
