Date display formats

Each event chooses how its own dates are printed. The stored dates never change; only their presentation does.

Where

Events settings → Date & Time → Date format.

The options

The choice applies to that event's dates everywhere they are printed: the single-event page's date block and details sidebar, and the event list item.

Choosing one

Default date is the right answer for most events. It follows the site's own convention, so events read like the rest of the site.

Default date and time is for events where the start time is the point — a talk, a concert, a class. Use it consistently for that kind of event rather than event by event.

The reduced formats exist for content that is not a calendar entry in the usual sense:

• Show month and year only — a season, an exhibition, a campaign that runs for weeks.
• Show year only — an annual edition where the day is irrelevant.
• Show month only — a recurring monthly slot.
• Show day only — rarely useful on its own; it loses the month.

Store the time, then decide whether to print it

The time field and the format are independent:

• entering a time and choosing Default date stores the time but does not print it;
• choosing Default date and time without entering a time prints the fallback time, which is usually not what you want.

So: enter the time when the event has one, and choose a time-bearing format when visitors need to read it.

Keep one convention per site

The single most useful rule in this article: decide the site's convention once.

A list where one event says 14 March 2026, the next says March 2026 and a third says 14 looks broken, even though every one of them is technically correct. Reduced formats are for exceptions, not for variety.

A workable convention:

• timed events → Default date and time;
• all-day and multi-day events → Default date;
• seasons and campaigns → Show month and year only;
• nothing else.

Where the format does not reach

Two places do not follow this setting:

• Add to my calendar builds a real calendar entry from the stored datetimes, so a guest's calendar receives the actual time regardless of what the page prints.
• The calendar shortcode places entries from the stored datetimes.

That is correct behavior: the format is a display choice, not a change to the data.

Verify

1. Choose a format and save.
2. Open the event signed out and read the date block and the sidebar.
3. Open a list containing the event and confirm the same format there.
4. Compare with a neighbouring event to confirm the list still reads consistently.