Stardew Valley’s festivals are dotted around the year, usually a big celebration and point of excitement the first time you experience them. However, the longer you play the game, the less interesting they feel.
That’s why most players see these festivals as points of opportunity instead, usually for access to new items, a good reward to grind for on the day of the festival, or an easy way to find every NPC.
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There are numerous farms to choose from in Stardew Valley. Here is every farm type ranked, including the latest Meadowlands Farm!
Given that information, this ranking of every festival is based purely on its utility rather than any personal attachment. Even if you’re tired of the vibe, you’ll still want to go to the festival.
While I think several of these bottom spots have immaculate vibes, I’ll only analyze them based on their worth for improving your farm, your skills, or your money, and for little else.
12Flower Dance
A Mild Inconvenience
Spring 24th, 9 AM - 2 PM
Daffodil,Dandelion, Rarecrow, Decorative Items.
The Flower Dance comes about pretty early on in your Stardew playthrough, and you can’t do anything other than buy a Rarecrow, which means nothing on a repeat visit, especially with the lack of strawberries.
The only benefit you get from dancing is extrafriendship with your choice of partner, which is only useful if you’re in year 2 and haven’t already maxed out your favorite bachelor.
It’d be better if you could dance with whoever you want right from the get-go, but you’re not allowed to dance with someone you have less than four hearts with, making it a pretty lose-lose situation.
11Dance of the Moonlight Jellies
Flying One-Note
Summer 28th, 10 PM - 12 AM
Seafoam Pudding, Decorative Items.
The Dance of the Moonlight Jellies makes the beach inaccessible for an entire day, despite only occurring at 10 PM, and gives you almost nothing in return for your wasted time.
It’s pretty, sure, but realistically, you’re only going to gawk at the pretty cutscene the first time, then just use this for a quick Seafoam Pudding at 5000g, with almost nothing else here.
It’s an easy way to find every villager, and the decorations sold at the shop are pretty nice, but that’s about it; it’s an incredibly one-note event you only really need to see once for the vibes.
10Festival of Ice
Fishing Forever
Winter 8th, 9 AM - 2 PM
Barbed Hook,Dressed Spinner,Magnet,Prize Ticket, Rarecrow,Cranberry Sauce,Stuffing,Pumpkin Soup, Decorative Items.
Now, for a festival with some actual reward, the Festival of Ice brings some pretty decent food items with the Traveling Merchant, and winning the competition is somewhat worthwhile.
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It does take a while to fish up everything, but you get two tackles, magnet bait, and a cool cap, or a Prize Ticket on repeated wins, all of which arepretty decent rewards for fishermen.
It’s not amazing, and I can see it being worth hitting up if you want a prize ticket, but otherwise, I’d say that the time invested is better spent elsewhere and makes this pretty skippable.
9Spirit’s Eve
Free Gains
Fall 27th, 10:00 PM - 11-50 PM
Rarecrow,Golden Pumpkin,Prize TicketDecorative Items.
While Spirit’s Eve is mostly annoying for blocking off all of Pelican Town for almost all of the 27th of Fall, the reward you get for doing the maze is pretty quick to grab and great.
The Golden Pumpkin is a universally loved item, and you get it completely free, making it a pretty good substitute for aPrismatic Shardif you’re trying to get someone’s hearts up.
There isn’t much else here aside from that, but given you can still access the Mines and the Beach while the town is closed, it’s not too annoying, even if you’re only getting a prize ticket in repeat years.
Friendship Can’t Hurt
Summer 11th, 9 AM - 2 PM
Starfruit, Friendship with all villagers, Decorative Items.
Unlike the Flower Dance, the Luau gives you a decent boost to your friendship with almost every NPC in the game, making it worth getting a good ingredient for that little bit less grinding later.
It’s not that hard to get a great silver-quality item or decent gold-quality item in your first year, then just hang onto it and throw it in the soup later, plus the shop here isn’t half bad.
It’s primarily decorations, but you may also nab a Starfruit, which makes it an easy way to get it mid-way through summer if you haven’t unlocked the Desert just yet.
7Trout Derby
Quality Varies
Summer 20th - 21st
Crab Pot,Mystery Box,Diamond,Deluxe Bait,Triple Shot Espresso,Quality Sprinkler,Warp Totem: Farm,Omni Geode, Decorative Items.
The Trout Derby is one of the great festivals that doesn’t block off an area, gives you a load of Fishing experience for participating, and has some fairly decent rewards if you do well.
Each Rainbow Trout you catch can give you a Golden Tag, which you can trade for several excellent items: Diamonds, Espresso, Omni Geodes, Farm Totems, or Mystery Boxes.
It does require a significant time investment into fishing for trout while the event is going on, but I’d say it’s worth it, especially if your fishing power is decent enough.
6SquidFest
On The Grind
Winter 12th - 13th
Deluxe Bait,Winter Seeds,Mystery Box,Dish O' The Sea,Pearl, Coffee,The Art O' Crabbing,Seafoam Pudding,Trap Bobber,Treasure Chest,Triple Shot Espresso(Only a few of these items can be earned on any given day)
Unaffiliated with Splatoon, SquidFest is an incredibly similar event to the Trout Derby, making you catch a bunch ofSquidfor rewards, and not blocking off any areas while it’s up.
It only runs for two days, and it’s well worth going for the Iridium or Gold rewards on both days by fishing up 8-10 Squid, earning you mystery boxes and free fishing EXP in book form.
It’s again quite time-consuming, but the investment here is slightly more worth it, for giving you a definitive number of rewards while only requiring a set amount of squid, instead of asking you to give an unending number of trout.
5Egg Festival
Strawberry Maxxing
Spring 13th, 9 AM - 2 PM
Strawberry Seeds,Prize Ticket, Decorative Items.
The Egg Festival would be around where Spirit’s Eve is, if it weren’t for Pierre carrying this event on his shoulders, sellingstrawberry seeds during this eventand barely any other time.
This makes it the de facto way to earn a large quantity of the best spring crop, and whenever I play the game, I make sure to save tons for this festival so that I can blow it all on enough seeds for two years.
The egg hunt itself is pretty middling. It gives you a neat hat the first time, and a prize ticket the second time, so it’s somewhat worth doing, but the strawberry seeds pull this one ahead.
4Feast of the Winter Star
I’m Dreaming of a Rainbow Shell
Winter 25th, 9 AM - 2 PM
Triple Shot Espresso,Powdermelon,Garlic,Fire Quartz,Frozen Tear,Fried Mushroom,Duck Egg,Bread,Cave Carrot,Perch,Clam,Winter Root, Decorative Items, and a massive random pool of items for your gift
The Feast of the Winter Star is just about the most RNG-heavy thing in Stardew Valley, and whether you get something good from it depends entirely on who gives you a gift.
Only one thing is guaranteed, and that’s easy friendship points with whoever you’re giving a gift to. As long as you get them something they love, it’s a guaranteed 400 points.
The items you could get from gifts range from an Iridium Bar to 50 Stone, and Pierre’s rotating stock could sell you a Triple Shot Espresso or a single Winter Root. It’s, at worst, just OK, but potentially incredible.
3Desert Festival
Seeds ‘n’ More
Spring 15th - 17th
Mystery Box,Mega Bomb,Spicy Eel,Crab Cakes,Eggplant Parmesan,Pumpkin Soup,Lucky Lunch,Woodcutter’s Weekly,Strawberry Seeds,Mixed Seeds,Magic Rock Candy, An overwhelmingly large amount of items villagers can randomly sell, Decorative Items
You probably aren’t seeing the Desert Festival in your first year, as it only happens in Spring, but even in years 2 and above, it’s pretty worth giving a visit to, with a variety of goodies.
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It’s a good source of Strawberry Seeds if you didn’t get your fill from the Egg Festival, as well as Mystery Boxes, Mega Bombs, Foraging EXP books, and a variety of really good food items.
The villager shops are very random, but if you getDemetrius,Emily,Kent,Maru, orPierre, you’re going to be eating good, otherwise, you’ll probably save the animal racing for next year.
