As always, we have the ultimate pairing of Attila's handpicked musical and poetic talent coupled with dozens of beers deemed worthiest, rarest, most eclectic, and most 'scoopable' by co-founder Alex Hall - plus of course a good range of ciders and perries. Glastonwick is unique in being a 50-50 melding of the CAMRA-style real ale festival concept with a great independent music festival. It is absolutely the antidote to music festivals with global corporate sponsors where the only stuff to drink is bland, gaseous, overpriced, mass-produced swill that’s not worthy of even putting out an ashtray fire. Likewise, Glastonwick is also the antidote to unnecessary, ignored, or inappropriate beer festival entertainment put on as an afterthought.

All our beers are traditional cask-conditioned ‘real’ ales from small, artisanal, 'craft’ breweries. All ciders and perries (like cider but made with pears) are straight from the farmhouse and are made with real apples and pears, as opposed to fruit concentrate used in processed, mass-produced, artificially fizzed-up brands. They are all hand-crafted by brewers and cider makers alike who are dedicated to keeping tradition and quality alive in the face of the ever-present spectre of global corporate standardisation, and the resulting dumbing down of taste and loss of local craftsmanship. We support brewers who are motivated by quality and tradition rather than corporate profit. We at Glastonwick rebel against the creeping corporate rot. Real ale, cider, and perry is our tradition and must remain so, please - wherever you are - support the real stuff and reject the mass-produced corporate zombie piss that collectively represent today's global sterility onslaught.

Basically, what we have here is beer and cider just as they were everywhere through the ages until mass-production techniques by accountant-led big breweries and their destructive, brainwashing marketing minions got their hands on our brewing heritage in the middle of the last century. Real ales are served at the traditional cellar temperature of pubs through the centuries - about 12-14C, so cool but not chilled. This is the perfect temperature to taste and enjoy all the flavours and nuances of these brews; the modern marketing concept of chilling mass-produced keg beers (think "Extra Cold", etc. - blech!) is solely to make them tasteless by extreme cold numbing your taste buds - the large quantities of cheap corn, rice, maize, etc. that these corporately made "beers" often contain to pad out the more expensive malted barley content make for a foul pint if served at cellar temperature. "Extra [anything]" will almost certainly be 'extra bad' - or 'extra bland'. Any common brand of fizzy, mass-produced lager that has been left to warm up to real ale temperatures is truly disgusting to smell and taste.

With keg ales, these are mostly just bland, tasteless, and uncouth. Note I say “mostly" - there are a small but growing number of exceptions - namely small scale production kegs from craft breweries such as Meantime, Camden Town, and Magic Rock which are generally unpasteurised, so are worthy and shouldn’t be shunned at any place that no real ale is available. For many unseasoned drinkers, these actually (over the course of time) form a stepping stone between mass-produced keg crap and real ale. Guinness in whatever draught form (especially "Extra Cold") and John Smith's 'Extra Smooth' are prime examples of today's zombie ale brews - no exaggeration there as they really are the living dead - living marketing on the bar top - but dead, filtered, pasteurised beer is residing inside the keg. These are examples of mass-produced beer to be given new 'life' by extraneous CO2 or nitrogen pushing it out off the fizz tap. So, now you know the reason for the 'extra cold' corporate marketing bombardment - it's simply a cover up of how bad they actually are. Cask beer forms a huge part of our heritage, as does farmhouse cider and perry. Please support these - or forever be at the mercy of those nice, smiley, happy, corporate salespeople in suits and ties that want you to forever be one of their brand loyal imbibing drones that has no voice. Please be a real person - not a corporate, mass-produced, brand-loyal sheep.

Each day, irrespective of whether camping or not, please hand in your entrance ticket and you'll get a colour-coded wristband. Musicians and volunteers must get these as well. Then you need to buy some beer tokens! You’ll need the correct colour wristband to be served at the bar - please display it prominently. Hang on to your camping tickets if you’re camping. It’s a working farm, glass isn’t allowed, so no glass on site please.

KEEP GLASTONWICK TIDY! Please make sure every last bit of rubbish goes in the black sacks.

PARKING for non-campers is in the field immediately to your left as you arrive on site. For campers (including those with camper vans, etc.) and musicians, it’s in the camping field. Please don’t pitch tents in the car park. CAMPING is in the top field to the right, past the music barn, beyond the cattle grid – there’s a sign. Please don’t camp in the enclosed space to the left, and look out for rabbit holes! STAND PIPE is in the camping field and there’s another cold water tap at the back of the toilet block. TOILETS & SHOWER are next to the barn and more toilets are in the camping field. DO NOT TOUCH THE STOPCOCK IN THE FIELD! Barbecues, camping stoves etc are OK but PLEASE NO FIRES, and when the music stops and the bar shuts PLEASE KEEP THE NOISE DOWN in the camping field and on the way out. Other campers want to sleep and we don’t want neighbour complaints. The camping field is very big so those who want to go straight to sleep should camp at the end nearest the barn, while hardier souls should head down towards the far end. Please don’t wander into the farm bits, jump on the bales or climb on vehicles – they are out of bounds!

***Campers are strongly advised to bring a torch and a plentiful supply of batteries for the weekend!***

Campers must be off the premises no later than noon on Monday. Drink accordingly on Sunday night.

NOT ALL BEERS AND CIDERS WILL LAST THROUGH THE WEEKEND; they will be served from Friday night (as long as they are ready – the beers need time to settle and condition) until they run dry. When ordering, please ask for the FULL NAME INCLUDING BREWERY to speed service as they are arranged on the stillage in alphabetical order left to right by brewery name. Please go to a server near the cask of your choice.

2- and 4-pint take out containers will be available for taking home or to the camping field, but STRICTLY ONLY BEFORE 'TIME' IS CALLED.

Do not take food or drink on the shuttle bus!

Be respectful of trees and plants growing around the farm buildings. Do not touch them, let alone pick any fruit that's growing. If you have children, be watchful and don't let them play anywhere near the plants.

VOLUNTEERS

We will be relying on volunteers to serve and do other duties while the event is on (volunteers are also needed for the set-up).

If you would like to help us or enquire about helping please contact Emma Mercer:

Volunteers will be rewarded with free beer vouchers.