Just noticed that the Amiando link seems to be going to last year’s Twestival page. While we fix this, please use and share this link: http://uk.amiando.com/Twestival2010_Stoke.html

The global Stoke Twestival (= a festival organised through Twitter) is *definitely* going ahead this year on the 25th March.

Once again it’s for a really great cause, Concern Worldwide, which will directly support education for children who need it most.

We will be holding it in the sky room of the YMCA in Hanley which boasts some of the best views in Stoke, and entertainment is already being plotted by Carl Plant of bITjam fame and others working with the creative team at the YMCA.

If you would like to be involved again, please speak out now and also go and buy a ticket - we’ve released an initial batch of 20 until we’ve finalised how many people we can fit into the room so if you want to be involved as a volunteer on the night please make sure you buy one now. http://www.amiando.com/Twestival2010_Stoke.html

We’re also selling tickets for donations at £5 and £150 levels and would be really grateful to anyone who would like to help get sponsors and collect donations for the cause. £150 ticket sponsors will get a logo and profuse thanks on the website which should get a really big global audience.

The website is at http://stoke.twestival.com/ and you can also follow on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/stoketwestival

Auctions and raffle prizes are being planned and I promise not to go anywhere near the organisation of the raffle. Ever again. We can’t all be blessed with skills in this field, it seems. If you’d like to help with this or any other aspects that you’d like to see happen, again step forth.

Finally, we would love it if Trent Vale Poet could perform again (and everyone else who made it so great last year, but I’m assuming they’ll see this online!), so could anyone who sees him about ask him? I’ve got him a ticket and a beer in anticipation

many thanks
Clare x

The Stoke team is re-emerging form under snowy glaciers and getting ready for the second Stoke Global Twestival on March 25th. If you would like to be involved, please sign up here!

Check out the introduction to Twestival

@carlplant talks about Stoke Twestival

Raffle prizes (links to be added. Promise):Thank

We’d like to thank all our sponsors and generous supporters for the first Stoke-on-Trent Twestival:

The Leopard Hotel, our hosts

The Burslem School of Art, providers of the PA

Blurb, Stoke Bands, Pitsnpots, BBC Stoke & Staffordshire.

All the following offered raffle prizes: The Regent Theatre - MOORCROFT - MARK BRERETON - AERIAL EYES - BADSHA RESTAURANT - BEAT THE COLD - THE GOLD DISC - ARTWAVES - DAYVE DEAN - Michelle Saxon

There will be a lot of video and photos to come, but let the writer here give a few impressions for all those wondering ‘what the hell was that all about?’.

What I really enjoyed was what a relaxed evening it was. Nobody came expecting some slick, New York-style disco (at least, I hope they didn’t) and many people came with something to offer to the night - notably Julie Gould, who gave her body to the creative talents of those present. I’ll leave that to your imagination until the photos go up.

We had the Trent Vale Poet, the voice of Stoke-on-Trent, holding the night together beautifully with classics like Fenton and Hanley Bus Station; DJ Fresh accompanying the Leopard’s lobby (stew); Dayve, a very accomplished singer from Crewe, who donated proceeds from his CD to the fund and another poet whose name I didn’t catch. Inbetween all of this was Bitjam along with @in2nation, weaving magical sounds around the charity:water video and, later, the streams of Twestival twitters - to keep it simple we went for a Monitter feed showing twestival, stoketwestival and (because we’re British) uksnow.

And above all else, @markbrereton who did so much behind the scenes was merely thanked for the wonderful cake he bought, which helped us accompany our birthday wishes to Charles Darwin. As well as all of these, we need to say thank-yous to (Twitter names where available): @scott_Uk, @skinttariffs, @findogask, @laird_attwood, @biggun, @carlplant, @chrisbheath, @beadmouse_uk, @aerialeyes, @pitsnpots, @david_elks, @sentinelnews, @tideswellman. And the Leopard Hotel, the Burslem School of Art and the Burslem History Club. Apologies to anyone I’ve forgotten…

I still need to cross reference this with the list that I’ve managed to leave in a box, but I think this is right… in cash, we raised £158 in entry and raffle sales. £28 of this (from Julie and Dayve) will be put into Twestival.Fm as a thank-you to all the artists who donated their time and tracks. This is added to £120 raised on Amiando to date.

And tickets are still available!

We decided to put off the raffle to give more people who read about this a chance to buy tickets and so this will now be drawn live on Twitter on Sunday, although there is at least one prize that needs to be drawn today. Plus, we have a very exciting opportunity for those of you interested in ghosts but the details of this will be confirmed later today…

- @clarewhite

1.1 billion people around the world don’t have access to clean water. Today, 187 cities around the world are gathering today to raise money to change that. It’s called Twestival and it has been organised very quickly by thousands of people making small efforts and small donations for a single cause: charity:water.

In Stoke-on-Trent, we will be holding our Twestival at the very historic Leopard Hotel in Burslem, following in the footsteps of Charles Darwin - whose 200th birthday is also today - Josiah Wedgwood - who held some of the meetings about the campaign to end the slave trade here - James Brindley, great engineer.

Throughout its history, the pub has been a centre for conversation and gatherings, a thoroughfare at the centre of global industries.
It’s a great place to hold a meeting and we hope you can join us in the back room from 6.30 for music, video and cake…

If you can’t come (like, because you’re 3,000 miles away), you can follow updates from the evening and send messages to us by visiting this link: http://search.twitter.com/search?q=stoketwestival and… (this is the bit where I ask you for money) - you can really, really help by donating £5 to buy a ticket, either virtual or to come: http://www.amiando.com/twestivalstoke.html. Either way you get entered into our raffle for some brilliant prizes. All the money we raise goes straight to charity:water without any admin fees being taken away.

There’s a nice video here that shows how the pumps are built, local people are trained in the process and then people can have clean water in their own communities: http://blurbonline.ning.com/video/cleanwater-promo-with-beck

There is more information and links at http://stoke.twestival.com. If you can’t afford to donate right now then it’s no problem at all, but thank you for reading this far - if you have already helped or are just about to, then thank you too! That link one more time: http://www.amiando.com/twestivalstoke.html

with friendly greetings,
@clarewhite

So, in a previous post we were pondering whether Charles Darwin, who celebrates his 200th birthday on Twestival night (coincidence? I think not), spent any time at the Leopard in Burslem.

Well, there’s evidence. The landlord, Neil, took a moment out of ripping out a few 1950s ‘improvements’ to let us know that he has a diary entry in which Darwin writes about helping a family servant out by placing her in the Leopard as landlady and then, to help her settle in, spending a summer there. Well, it is hard just to stay there for ‘one drink’…

Hopefully we’ll be able to upload a scan on Thursday.

So, you want to spend some time at Darwin’s summer hang-out? Best buy your tickets today

• PDF to download and print and pin, liberally, upon every legal surface xx

This poster does unfortunately omit the price of the tickets: £5… please add that on with marker pen