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Twas the night of the Twestival

If it weren’t for Twitter, I wouldn’t have been able to follow the sirdavid meltdown. Nor would I know that Mayor Miller does “serious lunges and squats” in the morning. Nor Nora Young’s mint tea and ginger treatment for colds.

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Besides all those nors and Noras, I also wouldn’t know that Thursday is Toronto’s Twestival – part party, part fundraiser, part social networking experiment.

So for those not on Twitter, here’s what’s to know: Twestivals occur in 120 cities worldwide. Any and all Twitter users are invited, though there’s no URL needed to get in so non-Twitters are more than likely welcome. It began last year in London, England, and this year spread to Sydney, New York and a bunch of metropolitan areas you’d expect it to.

The party is an all-out gala at CiRCA, with DJs,”interactive displays” (like the Science Centre?), and the freaking Toronto Raptors Dance Pak. Tickets are $20 and 100 per cent handed over to charity.

Speaking of which, the fundraiser portion is to raise $500,000 for charity:water, an organization supplying drinking water to underdeveloped countries. (Important to note $500,000 is the global goal, Toronto Twestival is only on the hook for $5,000.)

And, not to be overlooked, this event is also partly a test of how people use Twitter.

Planning an event over social media is no longer rare. But to the extent that many Twitterers don’t know each other outside the Twitterverse, it will be interesting to see how many show up. Or, in other words, how many people read, care and follow through on Tweets, and how many people use it as a diversion. (The Twestival perhaps won’t answer this question specifically, but at least it gives me something to Twitter about.)

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