I went to the Twestival last night in London, and I have to say the event was quite cool. It had all the ingredients for a good night: live music, karaoke (each to his own), good drinks and efficient organisation. After a short while though, I found myself wondering “Is this what a ‘Twestival’ should be?” I enjoyed the event and think the organiser did an amazing job, I’m just wondering about the format generally.

For me, a Twestival (as the name indicates) should be something special, a bit different to other festivals/events. Yesterday, except having a projector showing the tweets with the hashtag #LDNtwestival, I felt it could have been any other charity/tech event.

People would say that they were there thanks to Twitter, that they met attendees through Twitter, and that the organisers created a special iPhone app for the event. Well I could say the same for a music festival: they also have an iPhone app, they might also raise money for a charity and you can also meet other people through Twitter. I feel the problem is that Twestival has become an event in which Twitter is just a medium but not the core of it.

So, what should a Twestival be? The original goal of Twestival was to enable Twitter users to meet each other in real life (IRL) and I feel this should be the core principle of the night. Setting the event in a quieter venue to foster conversations between attendees would greatly help. Encouragement for people to meet based on their interests/projects/skills would also be interesting - other activities around Twitter could also be set up, such as a competition for ‘the funniest tweet’ and so on. Twitter is quite a flexible medium, I’m sure there is room for creativity.

I look forward to any comments/feedback to know if I was the only person feeling this, and if it was something specific to the London event (the biggest in the world with over 500 participants). You can send me a tweet @guillaumefoutry .