Twestival Farnham can very proudly announce that last night’s event was a huge success! Over 70 people attended and we managed to exceed our target - raising over £1500 all for Concern Worldwide. So in real terms, this means we’ve raised enough money to fund the training for more than eight teachers in Sierra Leone. A fantastic evening was had by all with music, magic and some fascinating speeches from Nick Halstead, Julian Ranger and Simon Hulme.

Many of the guests were lucky enough to leave with some great prizes from the raffle, held by Farnham’s very own Raffle.it. The fundraising continues as one final incredible prize is still up for grabs. If you’d like to be in with the chance of winning a 20 minute flying lesson in a Piper Warrior please visit Raffle.it for more details. We’d like to say a huge thank you to all those who donated such fantastic prizes.

Organising Twestival Farnham has been great fun and we’ve been amazed at all support from the local community. And most importantly, thank you to all the guests for coming along and making the evening such a success. We took some great photos of Twestival Farnham on the night which you can take a look at for yourselves.

From previous Farnham Twestival blog posts you might have gathered that the lucky attendees get to take part in a raffle with some superb prizes. This isn’t just any ordinary raffle though, this is a Raffle.it raffle!

At Raffle.it we’ve worked hard to create the new must-have tool for online fundraising and have raised about £13,000 for some great charities like War Child and Bullying UK. Those attending Twestival Farnham will have the opportunity for one night only to play our unique raffle game live.

So why is Raffle.it different from a usual raffle? The winner is the person who selects the lowest unique number. So when you choose a ticket the aim is to try and pick the lowest number that only one person will choose. So if five people pick number 1 they won’t win, and if six people pick number 2, they wouldn’t win either. However if one person picks number 3, congratulations are in order as that’s the lowest unique number! If you still don’t quite get it, please check out our video which explains how to play Raffle.it.

We’ve had some superb prizes donated for Twestival 2010. The top prize is a night’s accommodation for two, with breakfast, at Farnham’s The Bishops Table - a gorgeous hotel steeped in local history. And that’s not all. We’ve got a £50 ASOS.com voucher; a DAB Radio, a selection of books from Waterstones; a bunch of cool gadgets from T3; a £100 and two £50 credit notes for Touchnote; some mini Moo cards and a copy of ‘Me and My Web Shadows’!

The best thing about it? All these lovely prizes could be yours for nothing. We will have a bucket handy in case you want to make a donation to Concern Worldwide as a thank you!

We can’t wait to see you there, and there’s going to be a little gift from us to you in your Twestival goody bag - so keep your eye out for it!

From: Rachel Adams of Raffle.it

To kick off the evening and set the scene at the Castle, Twestival Farnham will play host to some beautiful acoustic music from a couple of talented local musicians. Ed who plays the guitar, violin and vocals and James, who plays the guitar and provides lead vocals, are from the band The Mislaid Keys (themislaidkeys at hotmail dot com).

With a wide range of influences, the local band is able to offer well known covers as well as original material for all kinds of occasions.

Twestival has proved to be a great opportunity for the local community to all play a part in raising funds for Concern Worldwide. We’re delighted that Ed and James have generously offered to donate their time and talent to provide the evening with some musical entertainment.

Photo: Dennis Orchard

Twestival Farnham is excited to announce that Simon Alexander, a Berkshire Magician, will be coming along to perform his tricks and entertain us all.  Part of the Magic Circle, Simon is a full time professional Magician. As well as performing at trade shows, corporate events and private celebrations, Simon’s brand of close-up magic has entertained celebrities such as George Michael and Ben Elton. His magic has proved popular with a wide range of audiences, supporting artists such as Prince and the Manic Street Preachers. So there’s bound to be something for everyone. Twestival Farnham would like thank Simon for supporting the event by kindly offering his time to ensure the event is a truly magical evening!

We’ve organised an awesome Twestival evening packed full of interesting speakers, entertainment and music. Here’s a quick guide to what is happening when!

The evening starts at 7pm and for those of you driving, there is ample parking for cars, scooters and jet-packs.

Pick up your free drink, sponsored by iBundle, and savour it in the regal surroundings of the Castle’s great hall. Local band, The Mislaid Keys will be providing acoustic music throughout the evening, so the atmosphere will be fantastic from the moment your step into this incredible venue.

At about 19.30, I will be kicking off the evening with a quick welcome to all, as well as introducing Nick Halstead of TweetMeme. Nick will be speaking about the future of journalism in a post-paywall online world of publishing. He will be taking questions from the floor, so don’t be shy.

Following this, budding local entrepreneurs will have the opportunity to pose questions to two of Surrey’s own dragons - Julian Ranger founder of iBundle and Simon Hulme of Frame Express and Card Connection reputation. So if you’ve got a great business idea and would like insights into how to go about achieving funding, Julian and Simon will be taking questions from the floor from about 20.00.

From about 20.15 onwards the fun really kicks in with two magicians entertaining the assembled Twitterati. A member of the Magic Circle, Simon Alexander has a stack of incredible tricks that will guarantee a truly magical evening.

There is a Raffle.it raffle running throughout Twestival Farnham. So you could be in with the chance to win any number of the amazing prizes, including a night for two at Farnham’s Bishop’s Table hotel, a Touchnote voucher, a goodie-bag of Waterstones books and audio books, a remote controlled helicopter from T3 or an DAB radio from Absolute Radio. All these lovely prizes - and many more - could be yours for nothing. We will have a bucket handy just in case you want to make a donation to Concern Worldwide as a thank you!

And when the evening comes to an end, don’t forget your little Borderlinx brown bag full of going home delicious chocolate kindly supplied by Basingstoke-based Mars Drinks of KLIX and FLAVIA fame, to super-charge you through to the weekend!

I can’t wait to see you all on the evening. And don’t forget to upload any photos onto Flickr - and we’ll do the same. It would be great to have a record for a truly special evening, raising much needed funds for Concern. Thank you all for coming!

Abigail Harrison, @AbigailH

The Bishops Table, located in the centre of Farnham, has very generously offered Twestival Farnham a fantastic star prize in support of Concern Worldwide. One lucky raffle winner will receive a weekend nights stay for two including a full English breakfast.

The Bishops Table is a privately owned 18th century hotel that combines old world tranquillity with modern services to provide a comfortable and relaxing stay. The local hotel boasts a beautiful walled garden and is also home to The Garden Restaurant, which offers delicious Italian and Mediterranean menu. Twestival Farnham has been amazed at the generosity local businesses and we’d like to say a big thank you to The Bishops Table for donating this wonderful treat for two.

Waterstones, a leading Bookseller both on the high street and online, have kindly donated a fantastic assortment of books and audiobooks as raffle prizes for Twestival. Waterstone’s inspire people to read and engage in books by providing a wide choice of books to interest and excite its customers. It’s fantastic that Waterstones is supporting a charity that’s raising money for Concern’s educational programmes across the world.

We recently received the parcel and couldn’t wait to have a look inside and share the offerings with you. The selection includes great authors such as: Charles Dickens; Nick Stafford; Irvine Welsh and Stephen L Carter. We’d like to say a huge thank you to Waterstone’s for so generously sponsoring the event with this great range of books.

Twestival Farnham can announce that Borderlinx.com has joined in with the fundraising event. Borderlinx, the full-service solution that lets you purchase products from both the UK and the US with ease, is revolutionising the way we buy and sell between countries. We’re delighted that Borderlinx is supporting exciting developments in the online world, by providing Twestival Farnham with these stylish bags to be to be filled with treats for all the guests. We’d like to say a massive thank you to Borderlinx for all their help and support!

thebluedoor was very excited to receive a huge delivery of delicious Mars chocolate: MALTESERS®; MILKYWAY®; GALAXY® and MARS® bars for the upcoming Twestival Farnham. Local company, and thebluedoor client, Mars Drinks is a great supporter of charities and the immense amount of chocolate they have provided us with is true testament to that! Mars Drinks has an ongoing commitment to various charities through their Mars Volunteer Programme which enables their associates to make a difference in their local communities. So sponsoring Twestival Farnham is another way in which the company is showing their dedication to charitable causes. We’re very thankful to Mars Drinks for their kind donation and we are looking forward to being able to share the chocolate with all the Twestival Farnham guests – there’s plenty to go round!

An event just wouldn’t be right without an official photographer or cameraman to capture the key moments on film. So thebluedoor team was delighted when freelancer, Martin Field, offered Twestival Farnham his video skills for the evening of March 25th.

Primarily working as an artist in the video games industry, Martin has many years of experience in graphic design, video editing, as well as still and video camerawork.

Having worked on a number of projects for companies such as Sony Computer Entertainment Europe, the BBC and Ideal World Home Shopping Network, we know everyone at the event will be in good hands!

Martin will ensure all the highlights (and there will be lots!) of Twestival Farnham will be caught on film, as well as taking in the atmosphere of historic Farnham Castle on the night.

Twestival Farnham is only a week away, so don’t forget to get your ticket soon and help us raise funds for Concern Worldwide.