In this series, I talk about various aspects of The Lord of the Rings Online. This series is meant for newcomers, but may also help veteran players find more to love about the game.
What better follow-up to this morning's first entry about Special Events than with one about the biggest and best events in Lord of the Rings Online? Festivals! In this entry I'll talk about the Festivals that run for several weeks at a time and bring out the best of their seasons!
Spring Festival
2021 Schedule: March 18 - April 7
The highlight of this festival is the Hedge Maze at the Bree-land fair grounds. It hasn't changed from year to year, but some of the quests are still a little tricky to complete inside it if you are easily lost -- from finding lost elves, to chiding hobbit tweens, to drinking random mugs of ale and switching sign posts to confuse others! Additionally, there are also quests to collect flowers, stomp shrews, and run along some fences while drunk. Barter rewards include cosmetics, cosmetic pets, housing decorations, mounts, and more.
Anniversary
2021 Schedule: April 21 - May 12
While not technically a festival, this event takes place for the same extended length of the other annual festivals, so I included it here rather than in the Special Events entry. This event celebrates the game itself, and has a LOT of fireworks. In the last few years, there has been the addition of a Scavenger Hunt that is extremely extensive and sends players all across the map to find NPCs, revisit instances, and recall the events that make Middle-earth so great. There are rewards for VIPs every year, which is an incentive to subscribe during this time. Barter rewards include cosmetics, cosmetic pets, housing decorations, mounts, and more. During this time, various enemies in-game drop Steel Tokens which can also be exchanged for items -- rewards even if you aren't running Anniversary content!
Midsummer Festival
2021 Schedule: June 17 - July 6
This is the newest event in the line-up, and is one of the most enjoyable for me. This event takes place primarily in an instanced Minas Tirith as everyone prepares for the wedding of Aragorn and Arwen. There is a LOT to do! Not only is there a section of the Epic to do, but there are daily quests and a small herd of mounts to earn. During this event, they also added special gifts to the Hobbit presents. Barter rewards include cosmetics, cosmetic pets, housing decorations, mounts, and more.
Farmer's Faire
2021 Schedule: August 10 - 31
I hate to say it, but this is my least favorite festival, and it doesn't help that the Summer Festival (now obsolete) was combined with it -- I didn't care for that one, either. This festival focuses on harvest and food, and primarily takes place in the Shire. There is also a lot of fishing to be done from the integrated Summer Festival. Barter rewards include cosmetics, cosmetic pets, housing decorations, mounts, and more.
Harvestmath Festival
2021 Schedule: October 13 - November 3
This festival ties with Midsummer as my second favorite. Not only is there a haunted burrow, but there's also a daily-changing wheat maze and a spooky questline that drops a pile of festival tokens (and tells a great story). Not to mention you can now trick-or-treat in housing neighborhoods to complete deeds! Barter rewards include cosmetics, cosmetic pets, housing decorations, mounts, and more.
Yuletide Festival
2021 Schedule: December 9 - January 4
Ahh, my favorite festival! I'm a Christmas fanatic, so that shouldn't be surprising, but there's something about the story that is told at Frostbluff (an instanced area just for Yule) that makes it special and cohesive, much like the updated Harvestmath and Midsummer. This festival is also the easiest to run through and get your daily quota of quests for the wrapper quest to unlock extra goodies. I clock in at about 20 minutes per character. This is also probably the best festival for earning XP, which is why I often use it to level up some of my lowbie characters.
That aside, there are quests to eat food (yes, really), participate in theater (time consuming, but fun -- flex your emotes!), clean up messes, build snowmen, bake bread, chop "firewood" (man, those are some angry trees), and bring some holiday cheer to snowbeasts. Aside from Frostbluff, there are also Yule quests to do at the racial hubs for additional festival tokens. Barter rewards include cosmetics, cosmetic pets, housing decorations, mounts, and more. There have been additional Hobbit presents the last couple of years also, mainly being housing decorations and special mounts not obtainable otherwise.
So, which festival are you looking forward to this year? Tell me on Twitter @SpottedSnark or use the hashtag #GamerReverieBlog!
Was this entry helpful? Let me know! The series continues next Monday!
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