The Hours and Newton Faulkner will be headlining a great night of celebration and fundraising at the 3rd London Twestival tonight, kicking off at 7pm at Vinopolis in aid of ChildLine in London. Londonist having been to the last two of these Twitter-based charity bashes intends to head down there for a good-karma-fuelled beer and a boogie.
Twestivals - volunteer-run, charity fundraising events for people connecting through the micro-blogging service Twitter - were the brainchild of a group of Londoners in 2008. They’ve since gone global, inspiring cities round to take part in this new wave of charity and volunteering; building networks through social media to come together and donate time and skills for charity. This time 133 cities will be holding simultaneous events, in places from Bogota to Bangalore.
All proceeds from London’s event will go to ChildLine in London - the UK's free, 24-hour helpline for children and young people who need to talk and have nowhere else to turn. The cause was chosen by 4000 London twitter users in a online vote that saw support from celebrity twitterer John Cleese. London organiser Elizabeth Varley commented: “It costs £4 to answer a ChildLine call, so we hope the London Twitter community will come together to help 4000 children by reaching our fundraising goal of £16,000.”
The excitement around these London-born events reflects perhaps on the recent comments by Twitter founder Ev Williams, who described London as Twitter’s capital, and it looks like London’s love-affair with Twitter continues. It's great to see all that twittering put to good use and Twestival London is a celebration of doing some good over a few drinks.
This time we’re particularly looking forward to catching entertainment from the renowned London spoken word and performance collective OneTaste, and with the great acts on show this year, the ticketing is open to non-Twitter users to come down and enjoy the show. Drinks are included in the price and there’s still tickets on sale here, and on the door.
