Summer Festival Guide

We would like to thank Heliwyr for this interesting guide.

Inn League

To join:
Take the quest at the Party Tree in the Shire from Ailward Chubb next to the table full of beer. Proceed to pub crawl throughout the Shire, until utterly blasted, you crawl to the Bird and Baby Inn in Michel Delving and are inducted into the Inn League.
The full guide

The Races

There are two places to race to attain the Summer Festival horse/pony:

• The Shire, just north of the Homesteads area - Sally Threshing race-master
• The Bree Festival Fields, north of Bree near the horsefields - Bluet Bracegirdle

Each race occurs every 10 minutes. 5 minutes before each race starts, the quest will appear above the race-master's head. The first 4 people to grab the quest and a saddle, will be able to race.

The Race:
The course is laid out with various obstacles. Since there are lots of people around, it's advised you turn all your graphics to Very Low.

Turning the token in for your horse:
Turn-ins occur in the Bree Horsefields. To acquire the horse you must first trade in a normal horse for a Recipt of Purchase, trade your All-Shire Run token, trade 6 Summer Festival Tokens.

Festival Tokens

Festival Tokens are mainly acquired from fishing. However, you can also turn in your horse race token for 3 festival tokens.

Barterer's for Festival Tokens are located at:

• Thorin's Hall by the Blue Garrison, down by the river - Lafi Fisherman
• Celondim by the docks - Gaellien Fisherman
• Bree-land east of Pierson's Farm, south of Bre MollHindmarsh Fisherman
• Bywater north down by the pond near the double stone bridge - Neddie Grub

Fishing for Tokens

To get any of the "barter fish" you must first activate the quest, "Stocking the Pond" from Neddie Grub in Bywater.
The first quest will require you to fish for 3 different barter fish from Thorin's, Celondim, and Bree. Once finished you can turn in your quest to the hobbit in Bywater.

The next quest will allow you to fish for 20 minutes from the pond next to Neddie Grub. You can catch ANY of the regular barter fish (and the rare Shire fish) during those 20 minutes. You can also fish for 20 minutes in each of the other locations, though you will only catch fish from that region.

You have to go to Bywater and grab the initial quest, Stocking The Pond. After that you can fish at each location for the 3 types of fish that you turn in at Bywater. Once you've turned in the fish for Stocking The Pond, you can accept the quest at Bywater that lets you fish Mudbottom Lake (right next to the quest giver) for 20 minutes. Only once you've turned in your fish at that npc can you return to each of the three locations and accept the quests that let you fish there for 20 minutes each, catching more of the festival fish. Once you complete those quests you will only catch plain fish there until you go through the routine again. The routine appears to follow the standard timer of midnight EST (or perhaps it switched to midnight PST, which seems to be the case for me with quests like the ring-lore...hmmm).

I'd recommend, if you want to fish up a bunch of drum, amberjack, luillim, or the three "rare" fish from Bree, Thorin's Hall and Celondim, that you wait to turn in the quest at Bywater and simply keep fishing at the three locations. I caught 10 silver haddock in 45 minutes, along with plenty of amberjack, in Thorin's Hall, which amounted to more than 50 tokens. It can pay off to hold back on turning in Stocking The Pond and use it to do lots of fishing for the rare fish. Then, when you want to get those starry flounders, turn in the quest and fish your 20 minutes at Mudbottom Lake.

Another way to keep on fishing without being limited by the 20 minutes....
Just stay on the first quest and fish in Thorin hall, bree or celodim. Do not hand in the quest, that way you can fish as many you want and get all the coins without being limited by the timer.

Fishing skill isn't a factor with the festival fishing quest.

Trading in the Fish

Thorin's:
Amberjack: 4 fish for 1 token.
Silver Haddock: 1 fish for 5 tokens

Celondim:
Lullim: 4 fish for 1 token
Celebhal: 1 fish for 5 tokens

Shire:
Small Fish: ???
Starry Flounder: 1 fish for 5 tokens

Bree:
Drum: 4 fish for 1 token
Golden Redfish: 1 fish for 5 tokens

Some observations:

• The Wandering Farmer at The Party Tree - I did that one with my farmer last summer, then missed the Harvest Festival. I went there last night and she congratulated me and told me to return in the fall, so I am assuming it is the same quest and reward.
• The Inn League Run is an initiation. If you have run it in a previous festival, you don't need to run it again.
• The Inn League quest to drink 40-some local beers, ales, and wines from all over Eregion for a Title Reward is given if you are already a member of the Inn League.
• The dances are the same from the Spring Festival. There are no new ones added which is kind of disappointing. Also, they now have a cool-down timer if you fail a dance.