It was almost two years ago that I went to the first Twestival, Harvest Twestival – Gathering with many of the people I had met via Twitter and listinging to Ben singing his (tongue in cheek) Twitter song, “you’re no-one if you’re not on twitter“.

Fast forward six months, and I found myself in the BBC’s London television studio (thank you Jaz and the team), explaining why thousands of people, may of whom had never met in real life, were gathering in towns and cities around the world at Twestival events to raise money for Charity:Water.

That event, or rather the money raised by it, resulted in clean drinking water in Africa, thanks to the ongoing work of charity:water.

Twestival Well Drilling – Day 1 from Ethiopia – charity: water from charity: water on Vimeo.

Now, it is true that the events might raise less money than some of the glitzy charity ball galas that go on, and that folks on social media give less (see Tom Watson’s CauseWired book), but the fact is that there were many people and businesses donating who hadn’t got involved in supporting charity work before. That’s got to be a good thing.

Twestival is a testimony to what a group of volunteers, co-ordinating their efforts using the web (and social media tools), can achieve. I enjoyed watching some of the images I shot spreading around the world, and meeting people I had got to know on-line, face to face. Today Twestival is an even bigger, more global affair, alternating between two events each year, Twestival Local and Twestival Global events. If you haven’t been to one before, then tonight is your chance. Go to the Twestival site to find an event near you, and go and meet some new people, have a great time and raise some money for Concern Worldwide.

If you are in the TVSMC area, you can head to Reading Twestival or Farnham Twestival or even both!

Wonderful as meeting absolutely everyone was, the highlight for me was seeing Ben (aka ihatemornings) singing his twitter song. “you’re no-one if you’re not on twitter“. Don’t worry, you are someone if you aren’t, but you’re missing out on meeting new people like this lot (my photos from the very dark night):