York Food Festival

Cant speak to the food festival. But I loved York when I went for the first time a few years ago. Biggest surprise was just how good and interesting the national railway museum was - don't miss it!
Katy

We discovered that we were hitting the Food Festival after we booked our September trip through, this was in January.
We found no problem getting lodging, and rates were not increased (see Munich-Oktoberfest) for this period.

I suspect, like most food festivals up and down the country, they are attended predominantly by locals who therefore do not require lodging. There are so many food festivals running throughout the year that there really isn't any need to travel to one that isn't local to you, there isn't one particular festival that stands out amongst the others so I fully expect York Food Festival to be attended by locals who have their own homes to return to.

I also doubt that it will impact your ability to see what you want to see. York is best explored on foot, the festival isn't going to be impacting on the sights you'll want to see, it'll just mean more crowds to work your way between sights than there normally would.

I say don't change your plans, it won't make lodging more difficult or expensive and you'll have an extra attraction to explore if food festivals are your thing.

I wonder if York is always crowded as I was there on a cold, rainy weekend in Mid March a few years ago and the city was packed. York is great so I'm not surprised. I don't see why crowds would make it difficult for you to enjoy what York has to offer including the national rail museum, walking on the Roman walls, Evensong/tour of York Minster, meandering through churches, enjoying the outdoor markets, etc.

Thank you for all of your replies. I'm so excited about visiting York and glad that the festival won't be a problem. Since I'm a morning person I hope to get out and walk in town before it gets too crowded anyway.

We are going to be there at the exact same time, and found out about the food festival belatedly also! But, we did have a hard time finding lodging. Our first 3 or 4 choices were booked, so you might want to make a reservation. We are excited about eating everything delicious there :)