2024 York Food Festival Dates

The festival dates are 20th to 29th September.

The festival takes place in York city centre, it’s free entry and every year around 60,000 to 100,000 people make the journey into the city to join in.

These highlights promise to provide a memorable experience for all visitors:

• Great Retail Market with Cheese, Charcuterie, and Smoked Goods:
  • Featuring cheese, charcuterie, and smoked goods, local distilleries, pies, jams, confectionary, and much more. The market incorporates a special stand featuring Burundian produce to celebrate York’s twin town Dijon.

• Bars, Street Food, and Live Music:
  • Two live music venues playing from 5 to 9 pm with proceeds going to the local hospice (St Leonard’s).
  • Bars featuring York Gin and Brew York produce, plus local ciders and wine from the prestigious local wine bar Pairings.
  • Over 40 street food vendors embracing food from around the world.
  • Local CAMRA Beer Festival over the opening two days (20th and 21st).

• Wide Community Engagement with a Strong Healthy Eating Theme for 2024:
  • Community program involving 1000 places in hands-on cookery workshops for York primary schools. Additional places for youth organizations.
  • Second York Health Mela on the 22nd.
  • Community stand in the market with guest slots for Edible York, Abundance York, Trussell Trust, and the York Schools Health Minds initiative.
  • Local best home cook competition culminating at the festival.

• Hands-On Opportunities for All:
  • Both residents and visitors have the opportunity to try their hand at making bread and pasta, smoking their own food, and making butter, vegan dips, and ice cream.

• Enhanced St. Crux Experience - Demonstrations and More:
  • For the first time, the demonstration stage will move to St. Crux Hall, allowing a better early evening program including pop-up restaurants and tutored wine sessions. Expect an extensive line-up of local chefs.

• Additional Trail with Limitless Capacity on Saturday:
  • A key feature is the walking tour of shops and restaurants offering a small sample in up to 20 stops. Due to high demand and limited capacity, this event is always oversubscribed on weekends. In 2024, there will be an additional 10-stop, double-sample tour manned by the festival at pop-up stops across the city to accommodate the extra demand on Saturdays.

The full festival program will be released in early August, detailing all events, activities, and participating vendors. The Program can be seen on www.yorkfoodfestival.com.  Stay tuned for more updates as we finalize the exciting line-up for the 2024 Festival.