sixty five

2024 was quite the year. 

We have continued to sell and distribute our zine Service, Please! In October we sent out another bundle to the team at Unite for their Hospitality Combine meeting in Norwich for distribution around venues. This is a project that means a lot to us both and we’re very proud that it continues to reach hospitality staff. Thank you again to everyone who supported this project, all of the pieces are now available to read online, or you are welcome to buy a physical copy on our web shop.

We finally launched our collaboration with Little Pomona, hosting a launch event with a small exhibition of our project in April. We were lucky enough to host the event with James and Susanna Forbes, and a beautiful array of people came across to celebrate with us. 

The event feels particularly poignant to us as it was one of the last times we were able to share cider and conversation with Susanna, who passed away in September of last year. Susanna meant the world to us and we were heartbroken by her passing. Through cider and Susanna we have been introduced to so many wonderful people and have so many beautiful memories, all blessings to us as time moves on. We hope to continue the work of Susanna through Burum and through our own individual projects and to do all we can, in her name, to promote the wonderful world of cider.

So with that said, When Burum Met Pomona – A Case Study is now available to read on our education hub, alongside a gallery of photos from our journey together. 

2024 also saw us collaborate with four different Welsh breweries on a project called Flowers For Friends, to raise money for the very important mutual aid fund TransAid Cymru. We had a lovely launch and fundraising event at the BeerRiff taproom in Swansea to celebrate, which really bolstered our donation, so thank you to everyone who came out. Thank you of course to BeerRiff, Bluestone, Crafty Devil, and Wilderness for helping us with this project. And to all of the breweries who donated beers to the event. The work that TransAid Cymru does grows more important year on year. We hope to continue to raise money for them where we can. 

The Usual, then. All of our wonderful pieces have been edited, and we look forward to sharing them with you from February. All the pieces will be available to read online but we are also going to be turning this into a teeny tiny zine for folk who would like to purchase a physical copy of all of the work. Pre-orders will open March 1st. Eyes on our social media or updates via our newsletter.

Commissions for 2025 are now open! We only have the funding for 7 pieces of work this year, this sadly doesn’t include illustrations, so we’re going to have to do what we can in house with regards to imagery.  This year's work will look at The Future of Cider, the full pitching guide can be found here. 

What are we up to? Well we’re coming up to year five of Burum Collective this year, and we realise that we don’t always communicate super well that Burum is very much a side project, an important side project, but a side project nonetheless. 

Helen is no longer working in hospitality, which has been quite a culture shock but is doing wonders for their sleep schedule. They are however still committed to sharing the voices and work of hospitality workers within the drinks industry. They now work full-time with Wilderness brewery in Wales, while studying to eventually take their Advanced Cicerone exam. They are also continuing to plan and host tastings with By the Glass in Cardiff. (A huge thank you to Bacareto for allowing us to keep hosting these events in your beautiful space!)

Rachel moved to Sheffield last year and is enjoying getting to know the many beautiful pubs and people of the city whilst continuing to balance writing alongside hospitality work. Rachel has also taken on a role with the Three Counties Cider and Perry Committee this year, which is very exciting. Helen will also be volunteering some of their time with the committee. Our dedication to the cider and perry industry in the UK only grows year on year, and we hope to help the industry in any way we can. 

And of course, we’re both still working on Burum. As you are all aware, so much has changed since 2020. Burum was a lockdown idea, one that was born during a time when we had so much more time. More time to get more funding, more funding to get more time, etc etc. Now we just do what we can. Still voluntary of course. And although we are much smaller than times gone by, hopefully you’re still enjoying our work all the same. 

Without the help of breweries such as Wiper and True, Verdant, Phantom and Deya, we wouldn’t have been able to keep this project going the past few years. And for them we are eternally grateful. 

As per usual, if you would like to donate to our Patreon or sponsor us so that we are able to do so much more, or maybe finally get some new merch, please head to burumcollective.com/support