Now that the 2009 Honolulu Twestival is over, I can finally say YES WE DID! What only started in the planning stages a few weeks ago with a YES WE CAN attitude finally became a reality this past Thursday with a tremendous outpouring of support from not only the Hawaii Twitter community, but also from local businesses and the IRL (in real life) community to help make it all possible.

I am just truly thankful for the support that was shown throughout the community and spread across Twitter. I remember when I sent out DM’s (direct messages) to everyone talking about Twestival and how we in Hawaii should be a part of this since we are the master of tweetups. The response I received was amazing! Everyone was interested and ready to jump right in, although in my mind I truly thought if it was possible at all it would be a little smaller and would be in a setting more cozy and without loads of bands and sponsors. But I was proven wrong, which in this case was a good feeling!

On the eve of Jan. 28th at a food court table in Ala Moana Shopping center the event was born. We tossed around venues, ideas and then Oceans 808 came up. That very night after the pow wow around the food court table, Matt Matsumoto (@mattmatsu) and myself headed over to Oceans 808 to discuss securing the venue. Surprisingly with no hesitation they were ready to support, but did mention “you plan to do all this in two weeks?” “Yes why not?”, was our response. A little while after I finally realized that the venue we had chosen was so fitting for our cause. OCEANS = WATER. How crazy is that? Do you think someone was showing us it was truly meant to be? I do.

So from messages shooting back and forth on our little group to me hanging out almost every night with musicians, who are also dear friends and wanted to be a part of our wonderful event, it became overwhelming. I never before seen so much outpouring of aloha towards an event in such a short period of time, but in Hawaii ANYTHING is possible!

Being that I’m in the military, it has taken me to places around the world. In my travels, I have seen areas of poverty and poor infrastructure where finding a clean glass of water is so very hard unless you’re fortunate enough to have money to do so. Just think, a couple dollars for water may not seem much to us, but in parts of the world it can take months or even a year to even make that kind of money. Yes hard to believe, but true. Some places don’t even have the opportunity to have running water or the convenience of just turning a knob on for clean, fresh water. We often take this for granted so much in America. The Twestival allowed us to come together not only for a good time, but to also raise both awareness and money for a cause that I wholeheartedly support: “charity: water.”

I think this entire event and coming togetherness truly shows what the power of social media can do. And to all those supporters and businesses that helped us in raising enough money to show the world that Hawaii is a force to be reconded with, I say MAHALO! You really do get it!

$7,000+ for charity in an event that came together in 2 weeks! How amazing is that!
Might I also add that we had over 200 in attendence at the event. WOW!

Mahalo to all the organizers, supporters, musicians and our venue (Oceans 808) who came together in such short notice to show the world the aloha that makes Hawaii so unique.

Metromix Honolulu: Party Pics
Featured Photo by Dallas Nagata. See more here: http://tr.im/g976

Want to see the entire event from start to finish from our recorded live stream? Then check it out via Ryan (@hawaii) right here. (shorter version)

Honolulu Twestival: http://honolulu.twestival.com
Charity Water: http://www.charitywater.org

If you enjoyed this post, make sure and subscribe to the RSS Feed! Or you could read this blog via Email Subscription.

Categories: Events, Music, News
Tags: 2009, aloha09, charity water, Features, Hawaii, hitwestival, honolulu, Honolulu Twestival, Oceans, Oceans 808, Oceans Club, Restaurant Row, twestival