Annual Festivals

There are a number of annual events on the calendar that serve to pull the community together and give you a chance to raise your popularity with the townsfolk. Many of them also serve as ideal opportunities to go on dates with a special someone.

Flower Festival

• Spring 10

The Flower Festival takes place each spring (beginning in Year 2), as a celebration of the thawing snows and budding flowers. Unlike some other events, there’s no designated time and place to attend, and you needn’t ask for a date. This day-long festival is celebrated by the sharing of flowers. Each villager has their own favorite flower, and you can raise their affection toward you by giving them a flower, preferably the one they like best.

We’ve included the following table detailing each villager’s favorite flower, but to gather some insights on your own, pay Tabitha a visit the week of the Flower Festival. She uses her fortune-telling powers to divine villagers’ flower preferences for you.

Flower Festival: Villagers’ Favorites

Fireworks Festival

• Summer 25

The annual Fireworks Festival is a great opportunity to get to know a special someone better. Rowan arrives at your house the morning of the 19th, a week before the festival, to remind you to invite someone. That week, whenever you speak with a bachelor/bachelorette of the opposite sex, you’re prompted to invite them to the Fireworks Festival. You don’t have to invite the first person you talk to—hold on to the invitation until you speak with the character you’re most interested in. This date is a great way to boost affection and get closer to being able to propose marriage.

Come the night of the festival, you automatically return home at 5:00 p.m., and a cutscene involving the Fireworks Festival and your date occurs. You accompany your date to the beach, where the two of you watch the fireworks and get to know one another better. You arrive back home at 9:00 p.m.

Harvest Moon Festival

• Fall 15

The Harvest Moon Festival is similar to the Fireworks Festival in how you participate. Rowan alerts you to the upcoming festival a week before it takes place, telling you to invite someone. Again, this is to increase affection with a bachelor or bachelorette of the opposite sex, so choose carefully.

On the night of the Harvest Moon Festival, you automatically travel home at 5:00 p.m. (don’t go to bed early!), then travel to the top of the mountain (west of Edmond’s house) with your date. There you watch the Harvest Moon light up the sky while you get to know your date better. Consider inviting the same character to the Fireworks Festival and Harvest Moon Festival. If you continue to offer gifts to that character and complete their requests, you should be in a position to propose before the Starry Night Festival in winter.

Fall Festival

• Fall 30

The Fall Festival is a celebration of the harvest bounty the island has provided and is a chance to share food with the other villagers. Rowan alerts you to the Fall Festival’s tradition of sharing food with other villagers, and visits to Tabitha during the week leading up to the event cast light on each villager’s preferred dish.

Fall Festival is similar to the Flower Festival in that it’s an opportunity to gift seasonal items to the other villagers in effort to increase your popularity and gain affection. Plan ahead and spend the fall days stocking your refrigerator with plenty of tasty dishes to get the most out of the event. Though you can’t lose any affection by gifting the wrong item to a villager, you don’t gain as much as you would by giving a favorite dish.

Fall Festival: Villager’s Favorites

Starry Night

• Winter 25

Starry Night is similar to the Fireworks Festival and Harvest Moon Festival. Rowan alerts you to the need to invite someone to the festival a week before it occurs, giving you plenty of time to ask that special someone. If you’re already married or engaged, Rowan doesn’t appear, as your date is already determined.

As with other nighttime festivals, you automatically return home at 5:00 p.m. (don’t go to sleep early!) and proceed to the mountain with your date/spouse. Together, you view an extravagant night sky filled with twinkling stars. It’s just the type of night that increases affection toward your character.

New Year’s Festival

• Winter 30

New Year’s Festival is the perfect time to spend with your spouse (though you’re prompted to invite someone if unmarried). Unlike the other festivals, this one takes place at your house and starts quite a bit later. Go about your day with an eye toward staying awake until 9:00 p.m. You automatically return home for the New Year’s Festival.

That night, you and your partner enjoy a nice meal at home and reflect on the year that was and your good fortune. It’s not a long festival, but it’s a pleasant, quiet end to your first year on the island. Congratulations! Rowan greets you in the morning, to encourage you to extend a New Year’s greeting to the other villagers.