Introduction to Ciderbus.co.uk

Welcome to Ciderbus.co.uk, Hannah More Zider's Glastonbury mini site. The first thing you're probably thinking is why is there a section about a music festival on a website about cider. Well, as we explain in the “Our Aim” page we want this site to be about a bit more than just cider, and to cover all aspects of Somerset life, as this not only reflects our own interests, but hopefully those of the lovely people who visit our site (i.e. you!!).

The next thing you're probably thinking is why is it called Ciderbus? As you will see from reading through our site, there is a bus at Glastonbury that sells Burrow Hill cider . We spend a huge amount of time at this bus each year, and have some of our best times there. So as the key place that reresents both cider and Glastonbury, we thought it an appropriate name for our website.

As the biggest cultural festival in Europe, Glastonbury is perhaps one of the things Somerset is most famous for, and so we believe it deserves a place on our site. Of course there is also the small factor that most of those involved with HMZ have been attending the festival for several years and spend an unhealthy amount of our spare time talking and thinking about it, and in some way doing this mini-site allows us to extend the festival experience to much more than just the glorious weekend in late June!

If we haven't provided enough justification for our indulgence already, then we could also argue that Glastonbury Festival is in fact important to the cider industry. People flock from all over the world to Worthy Farm, and few leave without having sampled the delights of the Cider Bus, run by Burrow Hill of Martock. So thousands of people enjoy their first experience of “real” cider at Glastonbury, and as a result many are hooked for life!

So we hope you enjoy reading through these pages as much as we have enjoyed writing them – if you're going to the 2005 festival then you never know, you may even find the benefit of some of our experiences helpful, although we wouldn't dream of promising that. Other websites may offer you a bit more specific information and detail, and we have provided links to these in our links page, but what we hope to do here is bring you our view of the festival, and what we think makes it special.

The sections of this mini site are:

About Glastonbury Festival – our attempt to explain what it actually is, what there is to see and do, and why it is so good.

Glastonbury Festival 1971-1995 – none of us went during this period, but we’ve done our best to find out what happened, and detail the key moments that shaped the festival into what it is today.

Glastonbury Festivals 1997-2004 – collections of hazy memories, reviews, and a rough guess at what the weather was like.

Glastonbury Festival 2005 – a bit of a preview of this year, mainly based on rumours, half-truths and outright lies.

Travel – How to get there (Fire bus or walk)

What to take – We’ve survived torrential rain, knee-deep mud, and sunburn, in this section we suggest some essential items that will maximise your enjoyment of the weekend, come rain or shine.

Gallery – Photos of Glastonbury, often with us in them.

Forum – talk about anything to do with the festival, or anything you want really on our forum.