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.

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.

12 Flower Dance

A Mild Inconvenience

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 extra friendship 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.

11 Dance of the Moonlight Jellies

Flying One-Note

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.

10 Festival of Ice

Fishing Forever

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.

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 are pretty 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.

9 Spirit’s Eve

Free Gains

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 a Prismatic Shard if 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.

8 Luau

Friendship Can’t Hurt

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 can 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.

7 Trout Derby

Quality Varies

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.

6 SquidFest

On The Grind

Unaffiliated with Splatoon, SquidFest is an incredibly similar event to the Trout Derby, making you catch a bunch of Squid for 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.

5 Egg Festival

Strawberry Maxxing

The Egg Festival would be around where Spirit’s Eve is, if it weren’t for Pierre carrying this event on his shoulders, selling strawberry seeds during this event and 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.

4 Feast of the Winter Star

I’m Dreaming of a Rainbow Shell

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.

3 Desert Festival

Seeds ‘n’ More

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.

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 get Demetrius, Emily, Kent, Maru, or Pierre, you’re going to be eating good, otherwise, you’ll probably save the animal racing for next year.

2 Night Market

Everything Must Go

The Night Market is one of the most expansive events in the game, giving you access to a boatload of decorations, lucrative underwater fishing, and a shop that sells most out-of-season seeds.

You can get a free Pearl once per save file as long as you have a shred of musicality, and you get three days in a row of seeing the Traveling Cart, making anything you want from her much easier to find.

It’s worthwhile to go on at least one day per year, at least for the extra traveling carts, free coffee, and a convenient warp right back home after you’ve finished fishing for Super Cucumbers.

1 Stardew Valley Fair

So Much to Do

The Stardew Valley Fair, by default, is one of the best festivals on the merit of being one of seven Stardrops in the entire game, so it’s worth getting together a great Grange Display beforehand.

On top of that, participating in all the fun minigames or gambling can get you an easy Rarecrow, Prize Ticket, Mixed Seeds, Triple Shot Espresso, or a Glowstone Ring.

While its value does significantly decrease after the first year, it’s always worth a repeat every year for the easy extra prize ticket and mixed seeds, just make sure to keep betting on Green.