You can’t move for coverage of this Thursday’s Twestival event, which for all you non-Twitterers (Tweeters? Twits?), is a global series of Twitter meet-ups created to raise money and awareness for charity:water.
Building on the massive success of the first Twestival (back in September of last year in London), there are now over 175 cities taking part and many ways to get involved. This time around, the project has gone international, and charity:water is the one benefiting from social media being used for a good cause, instead of communication alone.
Currently, 1.1 billion people on the planet don't have access to safe, clean drinking water – scarily, that's one in six of us. As the Twestival team points out; unsafe water or lack of basic sanitation causes 80% of all sickness & disease, and kills more people every year than all forms of violence, including war.
Many communities in developing countries may have a plentiful supply of clean drinking water just below the ground, but simply no way to access it. Drilling a well can cost anything from $4,000 - $12,000 USD, which is put into frightening perspective when you learn that most people earn less than $1 a day. It’s just an impossible figure.
As well as attending one of the events, you can design a t-shirt, support the Twestival Gumball rally (which I’m really jealous I’m not driving in) or donate directly. One of the most exciting things going on for me however, is Twestival.fm - brainchild of Madhouse Collective’s Renate Nyborg.
Twestival.fm is an online music project that aims to raise an additional $20,000 USD as part of Twestival. Tracks are available to stream or download via http://twestival.fm, where music fans are invited to make a voluntary payment or ‘tip’ in a unique charitable take on the ‘pay what you want’ model made successful by Radiohead.
Artists, musicians and labels – including Bloc Party, Mystery Jets, Ben Westbeech & Imogen Heap - will be giving something back to the community by donating their music from the 5th to the 19th February.
All track donations, music streaming and MP3 downloads are being handled by the SoundCloud platform, which allows audio & music professionals to move music around the web. Meanwhile, tips can be easily donated using tools provided by Tipjoy. Just enter your Twitter username to leave as much or as little money as you like.
I’ve just been listening to the quite frankly awesome playlist, and now have a lovely stack of new music on my iPod for a small donation. It takes a few minutes to donate, and not only do you get something in return, but there’s also the rewarding feeling of contributing to a great project. Get online, give a little and spread the word.