From a recent Concern Worldwide mailout:

It’s been a month since Global Twestival 2010 and Concern Worldwide banded together to raise funds to transform the lives of thousands of the poorest children through education.

Together, we did it. YOU did it:  Over $460,000 was raised for education because of Twestival participants and donors like you! (Tweet this!)

Concern has already rolled out plans for education programs that will impact over 27,400 students and 82 schools in poor communities in countries like Haiti, Burundi, Malawi and Liberia —all thanks to Twestival and you.

How will Twestival funds be used?
Over the next year, Concern will renovate or build some 32 new classrooms, construct a brand new school, and transform classrooms by providing thousands of students with over desks, chairs, latrines and wells, uniforms, books and supplies. Concern knows that providing access to education isn’t just about buildings and books—we’ll also train over 250 teachers and headmasters, develop and increase enrollment of girls in school.

Learning Success for Children in Haiti
Concern will open and support new Child Friendly Spaces in Haiti, safe transitional places where kids can learn and play. Check out photos of one of these spaces taken just last week by Concern’s Allyson Brown, who heads up our Global Concern Classrooms program.

Thank you for joining the Concern Worldwide community of 3700 staff working in 28 countries— along with thousands of supporters and dedicated volunteers.

Welcome! Follow us on Twitter, become a fan on Facebook and sign up for Field Challenge Friday.

We’ll be in touch again soon!

Rosemary Siciliano
Development Manager

And just like that, it’s over!

Thanks a million to all the people who attended. We delivered the performances, info, fun, food, drink and prizes we promised, and we hope you had fun too.

We raised more money than last year, over $1600: check this page to see what that contribution alone can produce for education in developing nations. That’s an important part of the global Twestival total for Concern Worldwide, which is already exceeding $300K (that’s already more than last year’s total) and still being counted. You can follow along the night’s events, pictures, and attendees’ thoughts from what we tweeted at the time.

A massive thank you to all the sponsors - they’re all shown just there on the right - because none of that fundraising or feeding would have happened without them. And huge thanks to the ACP for hosting, Damian for MCing, and to the DJs and VJs and artists and My Sauce Good for all contributing their performances.

One last thing to mention: the lucky winners of the prizes we drew for.

• Mick (@metalheadmick) got the Magistic Harbour Cruise for 2
• Bronwen (@bronwen) and Ed (@zocalo75) each won a Nikon camera
• Brett (@bwskct) won the membership to the Museum of Contemporary Arts

Another cool item available to win at tonight’s Twestival: a Twitter background package offered by Typengraphics, valued at $220. If your Twitter background is at one of the boring defaults, this might be your chance to make it a lot more whizzy. Here’s what they do:

Typengraphics specialises in social media backgrounds for twitter, facebook and You Tube. We work with our clients to design something with Zing and will fit their current branding.

We also offer packages in Social media and assist clients with backend online business support.

Have you registered that you’re coming yet? You’ll guarantee yourself free CDs if you do!

Check it out: a Sydney-specific logo!

That was done and donated by Fabian Marchinko at Brand Simplicity [web|twitter]. Thanks, Fabian!

Sure it’s getting a bit late in the game, but it looks great. We’ll pop it up wherever we can.

We blogged yesterday that gourmet pizza folks Crust will be supplying beaucoup slices at tonight’s Sydney Twestival. Here’s some detail from the good folks at Crust about why they’re doing it:

When Crust Gourmet Pizza Bar heard that the Sydney Twestival had hungry mouths to feed, we couldn’t wait to get on board. Crust is excited to be a food sponsor for the Sydney arm of the latest global Twestival, and we’ll be sending over heaps of tasty pizzas for tonight’s big event.

Crust is proud to be able to lend support to the important work that Concern Worldwide does on a global level, and it’s our way of saying thanks to all of the Tweeps in Sydney who are joining the Twestival to show their support for a great cause!

What Gives?! is a blog that’s all about using social media for social good. And that’s exactly what Twestival is about.

So they’ve done a writeup on the global phenomenon that is Twestival, and Sydney gets a mention. Okay, I might have gotten a bit carried away when I briefed them on our plans: the ACP can’t actually let us go all night. Besides, it gets creepy at about 3am when all those photographs are WATCHING YOU.

But it’s great that What Gives!? are talking about the event.

PLEASE make sure you register that you’re coming. You’ll guarantee yourself free CDs if you do!

Aussie [web|twitter|facebook] have also stepped up to be sponsors of tonight’s Sydney Twestival. Here’s what they’re saying about the event:

Here at Aussie we received a tweet over the weekend that Sydney Twestival were looking for sponsors. We’d heard the Twestival was coming up and we knew about the success of last year’s event, so we were very excited to get on board this year’s Twestival and support a brilliant cause!

Aussie is stoked to be able to support Sydney’s Twestival, and also part of the global fundraising movement of Twitterers across the world! It’s great to use this opportunity to connect with fellow Tweeps.

Want more detail about some of the artists performing at tomorrow night’s Sydney Twestival?

DJs include Rit LOCUS (from Bristol in the UK) and Person3 from No Frills & LOCUS, El Mariachi from World Bar, along with a set from previously-mentioned My Sauce Good. We’ll also get sets from braindance artist metaeaux.

Sydney visual artists the Punk Monk collective will be creating liquid light displays and VJing, too. Pretty cool.

It’s getting to be too much for one blog post to hold.

Sydney Twestival is really proud that so many great sponsors are stepping up to the mark, and donating goods, funds, and services to help the cause of Concern Worldwide.

MyNikonLife [web|twitter|facebook] is giving us a couple of cool cameras (valued at $499 each) to auction off!

UBank [web|twitter|facebook] are giving us goodie bags. Which means you’ll get them!

Magistic Cruises [web|twitter|facebook] are donating for auction a double adult pass on their Magistic Dinner Cruise around Sydney Harbour, valued at $356!

For the gamesters, we’ve also got a copy of Need For Speed: Shift to auction off.

And remember how we said My Sauce Good will be playing live? Their Twestival involvement has turned them into tweeple. Follow ‘em!

Remember: register your attendance to ensure you get a CD at the door.

Okay, we’ve decided that the giveaway CDs for tomorrow night will go first to those people who pre-register to attend via Amiando. You don’t have to pay there, just register and then come. You folks will be first in line for all that free, new music. So register now and be assured of your tunes freebie!