Yorkshire Dales Food and Drink Festival to return in 2025 under new ownership

The popular annual event has been running since 2016 and was held at Funkirk Farm near Skipton but this summer’s festival was cancelled after the company behind it, Events by B3 Ltd, went into liquidation earlier this year.

Traders and ticketholders were collectively owed more than £700,000 at the time of the company’s collapse.

While it has now been confirmed that the 2024 event will definitely not be taking place, a firm behind the Lichfield Food Festival is to resurrect the event from 2025.

Cocker Hoop Creative has acquired the assets and intellectual property of the Yorkshire Dales Food & Drink Festival.

Traders who had signed up 2024 will have the payments honoured for the 2025 event so they don’t miss out, while those who had booked tickets are to be offered a discounted price for next year. The exact level of discount is yet to be determined and ticketholders are still advised to contact bank and credit card providers to request a chargeback for any tickets they had ordered for 2024.

Jon Arrowsmith, Managing Director of Cocker Hoop Creative, said: “There are many similarities between the Yorkshire Dales Food & Drink Festival and the Lichfield Food Festival, and we will bring our experience, commitment to excellence and determination to make this event a success to benefit residents, visitors and local businesses.

“We are thrilled to bring the Yorkshire Dales Food & Drink Festival onto the portfolio of Cocker Hoop Creative. As a growing business, this was an opportunity we couldn’t refuse. We are keen to preserve the strong heritage of the festival while introducing new and exciting elements to make it even more exciting for visitors, traders and campers.

“With the next event in 2025 we will continue to showcase the best of local and regional food, drink, and culinary talent. Visitors can look forward to a vibrant celebration of gastronomy, artisanal products, live entertainment from top UK bands, and interactive experiences against the backdrop of the picturesque Yorkshire Dales.

"We know that good traders are the lifeblood of a food festival, and we are committed to supporting those traders that have unfortunately suffered financially as a result of the liquidation of Events By B3 Ltd. For any traders that have already paid to attend this year, we will honour those payments for the next Yorkshire Dales Food & Drink Festival in 2025. We hope that this helps them to recover after their losses this year.

“One of our goals is to reduce ticket prices and camping fees so that as many people as possible can attend the event. With this in mind, ticket holders affected by the cancellation of the 2024 festival will be offered a discount for the 2025 event. We are looking forward to putting on a weekend in 2025 and beyond that everyone remembers.”

The acquisition was overseen by Azets, which has been handling the insolvency process for the previous owner.

Jonathan Amor, Partner and Head of Restructuring for Azets in Yorkshire, said: “The Yorkshire Dales Food & Drink Festival is the largest event of its kind in the UK and regarded for the contribution it makes to the local economy. Our ambition was to achieve a positive outcome for creditors, traders, and visitors to the festival, who can now look forward to the event returning in 2025.

"As the 2024 event has been cancelled, ticket holders can contact their bank and credit card providers to request a chargeback of the ticket price that they have paid.”

The festival regularly attracted tens of thousands of visitors but extreme rain and flooding in the week prior to last year’s festival hit ticket sales, while organisers faced significantly increased costs and overheads for putting on the event.

Sales for 2024 were also hit by a variety of issues with social media marketing for the event – including an apparent change in Facebook’s algorithm affecting the numbers of people seeing the festival’s posts.