Friday night is Culture Night ... and don't forget the B@lloonup!

Belfast City Centre will be awash with culture, music, talk, and most importantly, people enjoying themselves for free on Friday evening. From small beginnings in 2009, the annual Culture Night will see hundreds of events and activities scattered not just across Cathedral Quarter but most of the city centre.

The Culture Night Belfast website has maps and all the details, as well as a nifty myCNB feature to collate and share the events you want to see. (A few favourites of mine via myCNB.)

Look out for the yellow and black tape that will mark out many of the venues. The weather looks promising.

And if you're on Twitter and passing by Little Wing Pizza in Ann Street, call in and pick up a helium balloon and write your twitter username on it. That way you'll be able to participate in a city-side tweet-up ... the CNB B@lloonup. (Coincidently it's nearly Little Wing's fourth anniversary - first branch opened in Ann Street on 28 September 2009.)

As people walk down the narrow streets in Cathedral Quarter, wouldn't it be great if they could spot online friends they're walking past. Lots of us don't know in real life the people we follow online. By having a balloon above their heads labelled with twitter @username on both sides, people will be recognisable. It would be fun and relational, (potentially) outdoor and photogenic.

Realising that sticky labels handed out at events were too small and too difficult to squint at to see people's names, I've been wanting to use helium balloons for ages. Typically having suggested the idea, I'll be out of the country to see it in action. So I want to see lots of photographs, and stories of face-to-face meetings with never-seen-before pals!

Looking back through old blog posts I spotted the video I made in 2010. Wonder will the dinosaur be back this year?