Which Twestival is using a venue owned by a local celebrity? Bristol!

The Tunnels, a fabulous space underneath Bristol Temple Meads station, has been given to us for free by its owner the former England rugby union international Gareth Chilcott. We met Gareth this afternoon and he took us on a tour of The Tunnels which you can see in the video below:

To become part of the movement buy a ticket to Bristol Twestival 2010 for only £5.

We are thrilled to announce today that the headlining act for the Bristol Twestival is local band Phantom Limb.

Destined to be huge, Phantom Limb formed in 2004 and have secured their place on the local scene as a genre-splitting, euphonic delight. They recently took their sounds beyond Bristol in a slot on last year’s World Stage at Glastonbury Festival, as well as several dates in Europe and America.

Lead singer Yolanda Quartey and guitarist Stew Jackson co-wrote Will Young’s last single and were special guests on the Pop Idol winner’s last tour. They are also about to head out to Los Angeles to record their second album which will be produced by legendary guitarist and former member of the Black Crows Marc Ford.

With a steadily growing media presence and having featured in BBC Radio London’s Albums of the Year review on New Year’s Day this year, we just might have yet another local band to add to that iconic South West music Hall of Fame which houses such greats as Massive Attack, who have worked with members of Phantom Limb.

Yolanda, Stew and guitarist Dan Moore from Phantom Limb will join other local heroes The Reacharounds to make Bristol Twestival truly the place to be for a fantastic night of live music, local DJs, a prize-fuelled raffle and the chance to meet, tweet and give all for a fantastic cause. 

If you want to be part of what is set to be a fantastic night buy a ticket for only a fiver here.  

More info about Phantom Limb:

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Many thanks to @PRBristolBlog for creating the animation.

We have been truly overwhelmed by the generosity of the Bristol community in donating prizes for the Bristol Twestival raffle. Massive thanks to everyone who has given us something. The total value of donations so far is well over a grand!

So what can you win? See below for the latest list in all its glory!

Remember to win any of these fabulous prizes you have to be at the Bristol Twestival on 25 March so buy your ticket now here.

£200 of House of Fraser vouchers (donated by MyCelebrityFashion)

A PlayStation 3 (donated by HyperlaunchDMG)

Five goody bags packed with CDs, DVDs and film merchandise (donated by HyperlaunchDMG)

A champagne and lobster dinner for two (donated by Fishers Restaurant) 

Two handmade jewellery sets from (donated by Crystal_Jewels1)

Two Dark Bunny Tees movie t-shirts (donated by Dark Bunny Tees)

A free photo shoot including creative on disc (donated by Photogra4)

One meal for two voucher (donated by Souk Kitchen)

One Trunki children’s suitcase (donated by Trunki)

A box of British cheeses worth £20 (donated by Trethowan’s Dairy)

10 places on business training courses worth £700 (donated by BRAVE)

A 12 months business listing on Guide2Bristol.com worth £395 (donated by Guide2Bristol)

Membership of the 1K Club worth £75 (donated by BloodHound SSC)

A two-week health club pass for two adults and two children (donated by Cadbury House)

Two tickets to any show at the Bristol Old Vic before the end of 2010 (donated by The Bristol Old Vic arranged by Guide2Bristol)

Four pairs of Hippodrome tickets to Dreamboats and Petticoats, Blood Brothers, Dad’s Army Marches On or The Hobbit (donated by Bristol Hippodrome, arranged by Guide2Bristol)

To become part of the movement buy a ticket to Bristol Twestival 2010 for only £5.

Buy a ticket to Bristol Twestival 2010 for just £5 and make a difference.

Original image source

We’re delighted to say that tickets for Bristol Twestival 2010 are now on sale for only £5 each so make sure you get hold of yours here. And guess what? Bristol is the first Twestival city in the world to start selling tickets! Woohoo!

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls…we have a venue!

Finding somewhere to stage it is often the hardest part of organising a big charity party but fortunately we’ve managed to get over that hurdle as today we secured The Tunnels, a fantastic new music venue, for the Bristol shindig on 25 March.

The Tunnels opened just four months go but has already hosted many sell-out gigs. It is owned by England rugby legend and Bristolian Gareth Chilcot and housed in a place once frequented by another high profile figure with links to the city. Who? Isambard Kingdom Brunel! It’s situated in two converted railway arches and sits below Brunel’s original office at Bristol Temple Meads station.

Believe us, it’s an impressive space and here are some images to prove it:

Gareth and his team are not charging us to use The Tunnels which is hugely generous so Bristol, let’s do them proud on 25 March!

It is hard to believe that it has been almost a year since Bristol’s Twitter community came together in just five weeks to organise a fantastic party and raised over £1,500 for charity: water. If you missed it or fancy reminiscing about what was a wonderful evening, watch this short film:

We were one of 185 cities around the world which took part. Twelve months on we’re doing it all again and who knows how many locations will get involved?!

The theme of this year’s Twestival, which takes place on Thursday 25 March, is education and after an online vote Concern Worldwide was chosen as the 2010 charitable cause.

Founded in 1968, Concern is a non-governmental, international, humanitarian organization dedicated to the reduction of suffering and working towards the ultimate elimination of poverty. Their mission is to help people living in extreme poverty achieve major improvements in their lives - improvements they can sustain without ongoing support. Concern meets the needs of these people in a caring and personalized manner, respecting their human and cultural dignity. They are committed to reaching the most vulnerable, even in the most difficult of circumstances.

Concern’s work is informed by a vision for change and their education programs target the poorest people in the poorest countries in the world, with particular emphasis on reaching out-of-school children such as girls, orphans, street children, working children, children affected by conflict, children affected by HIV and AIDS, and children with disabilities. Concern’s education programs currently reach over 700,000 people in 25 countries across the regions of Africa,  Asia, and the Caribbean.

100% of the money raised in Bristol - and at all Twestivals around the world - will go to Concern Worldwide. The funds will be used for material purchases (curriculum, desks, pencils) as well as project activities such as construction of schools; rehabilitation of classrooms; teacher/management training; PTAs; HIV/AIDS school clubs; water and sanitation in schools; health education in schools; education advocacy; vocational/life-skills training for youth, farmers and women; and curriculum development for secondary school/university. Money will not be used for things like administration, overhead and reporting oversight.

We hope you’ll agree that it is a fantastic cause.

So how can you help? Well, at this point we need everything! Whether you can provide sponsorship, a venue, a raffle prize, food and drink, entertainment, help with press coverage or anything else which contributes to creating a brilliant party we want to hear from you!

To get involved we firstly encourage you to register as an volunteer on the Twestival website. When you’ve done that tweet at us on Twitter or post on our Facebook event page and let us know what you can offer. We look forward to hearing from you soon!