The weather was perfect Wednesday night as we brought back back three stellar finalists from earlier this year to celebrate our final Awesome Newcastle of the year. The Young Street Hotel generously gave us their beer garden for more people to attend as this month’s Awesome Newcastle was open to the public.

We welcomed guest board members, James White, Scott McShane and Linda Apostolidis. Our returning finalists were Li Laurent from Twist on the Tales, Lee Illfield of Newy Friends and Jorgia Field from Dungog High School.

Jorgia went first. (Her colleague Hailey pitched in July). Their idea is to create of a Chill-Out Zone/Sensory Space for students with additional needs. They would use the money to equip the space with various sensory tools and equipment like weighted blankets and lap pads and soothing decor.

Li Laurent of Twist on the Tales went next. Li’s co-collaborator Timbalina originally pitched this idea to us in August.  Twist on the Tales is a two hour adults only show inspired by fairy tales. It is now scheduled to happen at Flamingos Live on February 1st, and Li and Tim have 12 artists involved. They would use the money to make promotional content to encourage people to buy tickets.

Last but not least was Lee Illfield of Newy Friends. Lee first pitched Newy Friends in March of this year. Lee explained how hard it can be for people to make friends in real life especially in a world where we’re all on screens. Lee created Newy Friends where people of Newy gather together and eat and break bread and make friends. She started it earlier this year and she would use the money for a picnic blanket, umbrella and merch.

The judges deliberated and discussed and cast their votes. Much to our surprise the votes were tied, which has happened before (but rarely) at Awesome Newcastle. We had to go to seconds and Newy Friends won by just one vote. Congratulations, Lee! Seeing as it was election day in America and our host American Alex (who also writes this blog) had been banging on about how she wished the US would give ranked party voting a try, it was a nice example of how the system works in real-time. Jokes were made that our event was like the Pennsylvania of Newcastle and then Lee came up and accepted the cash from James.

Congratulations to all our fabulous finalists and thanks to our board members! Don’t miss Twist on the Tales or Newy Friends picnic! We’ll see you all in February. In the meantime start dreaming up your next big idea for Awesome Newcastle.