Glastonbury Festival chooses Thatchers Cider

The announcement that Thatchers is to be the official cider at Glastonbury Festival was made following a visit last week to Thatchers' Myrtle Farm in Sandford, Somerset, by Michael Eavis, founder of the UK’s legendary Somerset festival.

The new partnership means that for the next three years Thatchers Gold will be available in all of the festival's bars. A specially created craft cider bar will be installed in the Williams Green area of the festival site, where Thatchers Traditional, Heritage and Cheddar Valley ciders will be available on draught.

Says Michael Eavis: "This is a particularly special thing, as not only does it mean that we're able to bring a much loved local cider to Glastonbury but for me I see this as two long standing Somerset farming families coming together to offer something out of the ordinary."

Martin Thatcher, MD of Thatchers Cider says: "We've been asked on many an occasion when we'll be at Glastonbury - I'm delighted to say that the time has now come. Glastonbury's reputation is phenomenal, and our partnership gives us an outstanding opportunity to bring the very best authentic Somerset cider to Worthy Farm.

"The craft cider bar is particularly exciting as we will have three of our traditional, oak aged ciders straight from the barrel, bringing a real taste of Somerset to festival goers."

In line with Glastonbury Festival's environmental ethos, Thatchers will be serving its cider in biodegradable Glastonbury Festival cups.

This year's Glastonbury Festival takes place from 25 to 29 June, attracting 135,000 ticketholders, over 40,000 staff and performers and a worldwide BBC TV audience running into millions.

Thatchers Cider is a fourth generation cider maker that has been crafting cider in Somerset since 1904. The company has grown from local farmhouse producer to family-led company widely respected not only for its expertise in cider-making, but for its ground-breaking orchard management, its commitment to sustainability, and its firm belief in all that is great about Somerset cider, maintaining age-old traditions such as maturing its cider in century-old oak vats.

Thatchers flagship brand, Gold, is widely available throughout the UK - it's the country's second largest draught cider brand with distribution growing rapidly in the off-trade; Thatchers Vintage was awarded the accolade of the 2013 Champion Cider in the International Brewing Awards.  Earlier this year it was announced that Thatchers Gold would be available on draught in Australia thanks to an agreement with Australia's Coopers Brewery.

Pictured above: Martin Thatcher, Michael Eavis, John Thatcher

6 May 2014 - Felicity Murray The Drinks Report, editor