Midsummer Fire Festival

The Midsummer Fire Festival is World of Warcraft's summer holiday, starting on the northern summer solstice and lasting about two weeks. It was added in patch 1.11 in June 2006. In Classic, bonfires burned across both continents and deep inside dungeons, Flamekeepers sent players on long journeys to visit them, and the boldest players sneaked into the enemy's capitals to steal their sacred flames.

Background

The festival is an old tradition of Kalimdor that celebrates the hottest season of the year and honors the element of fire. Each year, guardians are chosen to tend the great bonfires and keep them from going out. The festival is also a friendly rivalry: the Alliance and the Horde each want their own capital fires to burn the hottest and brightest, and stealing the other side's flame is part of the fun.

The Flamekeepers

At the bonfires stood a [[forever:npc:16788]], who sent level 60 players on tours of fires burning far from home:

• [[forever:quest:9323]]: blue fires in the Eastern Kingdoms, which rewarded the [[forever:item:23324]].
• [[forever:quest:9322]]: blue fires in chilly western Winterspring, northeastern Azshara, near Valor's Rest in Silithus and by the entrance to Un'Goro Crater, which rewarded the [[forever:item:23379]].
• [[forever:quest:9319]]: the bonfires lit inside Stratholme, Scholomance, the ogre wing of Dire Maul and Blackrock Spire. Its reward was the [[forever:item:23083]], which summons a little red fire spirit, one of the very few companion pets of the time.

For lower-level players, [[forever:quest:9388]] and [[forever:quest:9389]] asked them to check that the green fires were still burning. Those fires, near Ratchet, Darkshore and Ashenvale on Kalimdor, needed the most care, and the reward was a basket of festival food: [[forever:item:23211]], [[forever:item:23326]], [[forever:item:23327]] and [[forever:item:23435]].

Stealing the flames

Each faction had a festival storyteller: the [[forever:npc:16817]] for the Alliance and the [[forever:npc:16818]] for the Horde. In [[forever:quest:9367]] and [[forever:quest:9368]], they sent players to warm themselves at the bonfires of their own capitals, and both quests paid in [[forever:item:23246]] and [[forever:item:23247]].

The more daring task was to enter the other faction's cities, reach the bonfire past the guards and touch it. An Alliance player who did so in Orgrimmar received the [[forever:item:23179]], which started [[forever:quest:9324]], and the same for Thunder Bluff and the Undercity in [[forever:quest:9325]] and [[forever:quest:9326]]. The Horde stole from Stormwind City, Ironforge and Darnassus in [[forever:quest:9330]], [[forever:quest:9331]] and [[forever:quest:9332]]. Stealing all three earned [[forever:quest:9339]] or [[forever:quest:9365]], whose reward was the [[forever:item:23323]], a festive circlet.

On PvP realms, these raids turned into skirmishes around the bonfires of the capitals, and the crown became a small trophy of nerve.

Trivia

• The first Midsummer Fire Festival in 2006 overlapped with the Scourge Invasion, so players could visit the bonfires while necropolises hovered over the same zones.

Later history

• Patch 2.4 in 2008 added the boss Lord Ahune in the Slave Pens and turned Burning Blossoms into a currency for rewards, among them the fire spirit pet.
• Later versions added bonfires in every zone, which gave experience for honoring or desecrating them, and a fireworks show to close the festival.
• World of Warcraft Classic ran the festival in its 2006 form.

Sources

• Midsummer Fire Festival, Warcraft Wiki
• Captured Flame, Warcraft Wiki
• Scourge Invasion, Warcraft Wiki
• All the in-game holidays that are part of WoW Classic, Blizzard Watch