While here in Scotland we can still get snow and hail storms when the temperatures should be increasing, the LOTRO Spring Festival aims to welcome in brighters and warmer days in Middle Earth! As various regions have their own events and Spring customs, this festival sees you travelling around – enjoying the journey rather than simply the rewards!
For 2018, I have done by best to bring this Festival Guide up to par with my other Event Guides!
How to Use This Spring Fest Guide
Please click/tap the link below to find links to skip quickly to what you want to know! In the bottom right of your screen there is an up-arrow to return you to the top of the page. Alternatively you can press your browser’s (or mobile device’s) back button to return straight to this menu!
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When is Spring Festival 2018?
Per the LOTRO Forums, the 2018 Event will take place from 15th March to the 9th April.
Spring Festival Encore 2018
An Encore Event has been announced! The dates are: 18th May at 10am (Server Time), until 28th May at 3am (Server Time).
Where Are Spring Festival Quests?
There are two ‘main’ hubs of festival event: Bree-land near the Horsefields and Duillond in Ered Luin. The main one in The Shire is the Bullroarer’s Challenge – aka Drunken-Fence-Walking! At Thorin’s Hall, there is the Dancing Emote quest plus Inn League/Ale Association NPCs.
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How to Pick Up The “A Taste of Spring” Daily
Don’t make the mistake I did on day 1! The Map you’re given transports you to outside the Hedge Maze. You need to backtrack to the Spring Festival Rewards Vendor to pick up “A Taste of Spring”. Pick this up from Sergeant Tombefore you turn in any actual festival quests so that they all count!
The Bree-land Hedge Maze
This little beauty is great for people like me who get lost in real life! There are a few quests that take place in the Hedge Maze. However not all can be picked up at the same time. Repeatable Quests here are:
- Terrible Tweens: Catch 4 Tweens in the maze. They are running riot and must be caught! When another player catches one, you have to wait for the cheeky hobbit spawn to re-spawn.
- Misplaced Companions: Find some wandering Elves in the maze. These follow similar walking patterns so you can find them relatively easily.
- A Laugh at the Lost: place signposts in various locations to misdirect lost maze-wanderers.
- The Chicken Dash: Retrieve 2 stray chickens from the maze, before they escape!
- A Fool’s Errand: once you unlock it, the 1 minute maze challenge is repeatable daily.
- Disorientation: find and drink Dire Brews in the Maze!
I love this maze, even though I got lost numerous times and even though other players found the tweens first! This festival feels more relaxed than most so I don’t mind taking my time around this maze!
Here’s a video of the route through the maze from start to finish:
Hedge Maze Map
I thought I was going to have to draw this map myself but as usual lotro-wiki comes into its own and saves the day. There are two maps below, but the most recent one can be found here. It contains the most recent quests and their locations within the maze. It is on the small size so I may make a higher resolution one in the near future.
Spring Fest at Duillond
In the Festival Garden at Duillond, there are a few repeatable quests. So here they are outlined for you!
A Proper Festival – 2 Spring Leaves
How The Shire Shoos Shrews – 2 Spring Leaves
Bodo Burrows is convinced that the Hobbits have a better grasp of Shrew Control than the Elves. The Elf he sends you to speak to…doesn’t think much of Bodo! But she sends you off to the Shire to learn how to get rid of Shrews. Here are the Hobbit “Tips” you receive:
- Nibs Cotton: Nibs uses his cat to catch Shrews. At least if he can get the feline to wake up!
- Wald Sandson: Talk VERY LOUDLY about Winter being just around the corner!
- Gaffer Gamgee: Trap them or…chuck an apple at them! But aim at the head if an apple is your preferred weapon!
Boot Demand, Boot Supply (Daily) – 2 Spring Leaves
Shrew-Stomping can only happen if people have enough boots! Santmereth, in the Duillon Festival Gardens sends you to help Deluraw with his supplies so he can make more boots. For this you’ll need
- 4 × Flax Plants
- 4 × Cherry-Wood Branches
- 4 × Elf-made Twine
Flax and Cherry-Wood Branches are found not far from the Festival Grounds. The Twine however can be picked up at Celondim Docks.
Shrew-Stomping at the Festival Gardens in Duillond
Enjoy a visit to the picturesque region of Ered Luin and enter the Festival Gardens (looks like a cave entrance). Here you can participate in Shrew Stomping (!) and also flower collecting for the festival gardens! This is a great piece of fun, although it is a popular event so you have some competition for your Shrew Stomping! (Click/Tap image to enlarge)
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Other Spring Festival Activities Available
Other activities which I personally don’t do because some are timed (I’m not very good with timed quests!) are:
- Pie-Eating (Bree-land)
- Dancing: Bree-land and Duillond
- Large Shrew Stomping (Duillond): you have to use Huge Boots to stomp the Huge Shrew before other players!
- Drunken Fence Walking (The Shire): yeah, me and “sense of balance” don’t get along!
- Horse Races (Bree-land and the Shire): sense of balance thing again!
All-in-all there are a lot of Festival Activities to earn those much-needed Spring Leaves! Pick and choose what you want to do!
↑ Guide Menu
Flower Picking Like Crazy
LOTRO-Wiki has a great walk-through and notes for where to find each kind of flower.
But you can run this daily during the Festival.
Update: you also have a chance of picking up a Tome of the Spotted Shrew from flower patches, so you can acquire these pets this way too!
How to Save Spring Leaves
During this event you can barter your leaves for a variety of items. Remember that cosmetic gear and items are Bound to Account and can be applied to multiple characters at once. So only purchase each item once per account. That frees up Leaves to spend on other things!
Also you may not have to barter Spring Leaves for a Shrew Cosmetic Pet. The Quest Terrible Tweens grants a Festival Box. Usually this one grants 2 Spring Leaves but I have had Dusty Shrew pet land from this box!
↑ Guide Menu
Spring Festival Rewards
There are a LOT of different things to pick up at this event and I can’t feature them all! From the usual cosmetic outfits and steeds, there are decoration, emotes, a cosmetic ‘weapon’ and pets. And that doesn’t cover everything! So here are some of the rewards you can pick up:
LOTRO Spring Festival – 2018 Mounts / Steeds
The steeds that are obtainable from the Barter Vendor during the 2018 Festival are: Lasgalen Spring Steed (40 Spring Leaves) and The Steed of the Moon Moth (20 Spring Leaves). Click/Tap images below to enlarge.
Spring Fest Cosmetic Outfit Rewards
Here is a selection of the cosmetic outfit rewards available at Spring Fest. I am now adding the 2018 Festival Cosmetics. I know Hobbits don’t wear shoes (usually) but this was the quickest way for me to get them in there!
Cosmetic Pets
There are a range of kites available as ‘pets’ but since the 2018 Event you can pick up the following super-cute animals pets:
- Female Pheasant
- Male Pheasant
- Hedgehog
Pets are really hard to get good screenshots of, but I’ve done my best here!
Decorations
As I only have a limited number of hooks, especially outside my Hobbit-holes, I haven’t purchased any of the decorations from this event. Thankfully @decodumilieu have collected them all together in one helpful place!
- Visit Déco due Milieu (English Page) to see them all!
TL;DR The LOTRO Spring Festival Round-up
As always there are a variety of events for you to choose from. With the extra travel, the LOTRO Spring Festival feels more relaxing than some of the other events LOTRO put on. And as always I really enjoyed this event and was able to kit out my female characters from it. Dive in and enjoy!
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