Mouths to fill at Funkirk Farm

Rachael Higgins has gone from Kit Kats to fighter jets to creating one of the biggest food and drink festivals in the country featuring James Martin and the Hairy Bikers. Catherine Scott reports.

THE Yorkshire Dales Food & Drink Festival is a family affair and is a festival in the true sense of the word. “I love camping and I want people to embrace the whole experience and above all have fun,” says its founder, Rachael Higgins. Until now Higgins has kept out of the limelight. Instead, since 2016 when the inaugural Yorkshire Dales Food & Drink Festival was held, she has concentrated on the behind-thescenes organisation and logistics, ensuring that every year it is bigger and better than the year before.

Organisation is this mother-of-three’s forte. That and a love and genuine passion to put on an event that fills people with joy and makes memories that last a lifetime.

Higgins developed her operations and logistics skills by managing factory teams at Northern Foods, Nestlé and latterly at BAE Systems.

Her passion for the Dales, where she now lives, and her steely focus on creating a fantastic family experience is poured into the event, which has grown to become one of the largest food and drink festivals in the UK.

It is due to Rachael’s joie de vivre alongside a healthy dollop of determination that she convinced the biggest celebrity chefs in the country to demo at the first one. James Martin and the Hairy Bikers have gone on to attend almost every year since.

“I think they really understood where we were coming from and our passion for food and drink and for making sure everyone has a great time,” says Higgins, who started her career as a Northern Foods Operations graduate trainee and ran manufacturing lines for Fox’s Biscuits and Gunstone’s Bakery before moving to Nestlé in York, running the Kit Kats operation and meeting her husband Andy there

“in the Smarties department,” she says with a laugh. They both then moved to BAE Systems where they led teams in the Typhoon and F35 Aircraft business units.

Starting a family made the couple reassess what they wanted out of life. They decided to follow a dream they had envisioned whilst walking along the river in York

FAMILY FRIENDLY: Right, Rachael Higgins, founder of Yorkshire Dales Food & Drink Festival, which is held at Funkirk Farm. Above, with her husband Andy and their three children.