Fire Festival, or "Pretty Clothes That Set You On Fire -- Literally"

June 21 - July 5

Fire Blossoms are your currency to buy things, so don't toss them on the bonfire until you know you don't want anything. (These disappear once the event is over, so you can't hold onto them for next year.)

Midsummer Merchants - Where you buy items with your flowers. Will be in the city hub.

City Hubs

• Stormwind [38, 61] Right by the Stockade.
• Darnassus [56, 92] Rut'theran Village, by flight master
• Ironforge [64, 25] Outside the Explorer's League
• Orgrimmar Valley of Wisdom, outside Thrall's Fortress
• Thunder Bluff, Spirit Rise
• Undercity Ruins of Lordaeron, throne room

Fun Secrets

Too low level? Think this has nothing for you? Think again! If you use the Ribbon Pole (available outside any festival tent), you get a buff for 10% experience increase! Buff caps at 60 minutes. Get the buff, go questing, and get it again when it runs out.

Also, the little bonfires (Honor & Desecrate) give experience! So grab them when you pass by to supplement your questing.

Quests

Incense for the Scorchlings - They give you an item of incense. Take it outside a major city and give it to a scorchling. [Eversong Woods - 46,50 ; Trisfal Glades - 57,51 ; Durotar - 52,47 ; The Barrens - 52,28 ; Mulgore - 51,59] One-time only.

Playing with Fire - Speak to a master flame eater in a city hub (locations listed above). Followups are dailies.

• Torch Tossing [Daily] - Your basic timed Whack-A-Mole. Stand right beside the blue bonfire (too far and the torch you're throwing doesn't work), preferably the max distance from the quest giver toward the braziers while still staying close to the fire. Target the marked brazier (will have a mark like a hunter's mark). They switch every 3 seconds, which means if you don't toss the torch the moment the brazier is marked, you'll miss it. It also has a very slight cooldown which means if your tossing gets off for the first one, you'll be off for all the rest. I recommend hotkeying the torch to your best key (temporarily, of course) and starting on the next mark you see, b/c any that's already up will change before you toss. 5 blossoms reward.
• Torch Catching [Daily] - Tricky. You stand by the bonfire and click the torch. Then you have to look up and follow it (some suggest looking down and following the shadow, but I can't find one) and try to get directly under it to catch it. The good news is that this isn't timed. The bad news is that you have to do it 4 times in a row (in one go) and it injures you when you miss it. Still, if you can do it and have the dedication, more power to you. I think I'll be skipping this one. I'm abysmal at it.

Honor the Flame [5 blossoms reward] & Desecrate This Fire! [10 blossoms reward] - This is like Lunar Festival where you go to every town, of both factions, and they give you currency items. Wowhead and Wowwiki ought to have a location of all the Flame Keepers available in a few days, and you can track their bonfires by tracking them. For opposite faction towns, I walked up to the fire just outside each town on my 70, desecrated it, and left (PVErs, note that desecrating flags you for PVP). No hassle, though in Outlands you should make sure to get it from the far side. I've checked the following towns and found bonfires at each:

• Alliance: Sentinel Hill, Goldshire, Darkshire, Astranaar, Auberdine, Lakeshire, Allarian Stronghold, Honor Hold, Sylvanaar, etc.
• Horde: Brill, Razor Hill, Sepulcher, Stonebreaker Hold, Thrallmar, Shadowmoon Village, Thunderlord Stronghold, etc.
• Neutral: Area 52, Booty Bay, Gadgetzan.
• DIDN'T find bonfire: Grom'gol, Shattrath.
• A list is up at Wowwiki.

Due to my travels, it seems that every world zone will have a bonfire at each town with an inn. If there is a major Neutral town and just outposts for factions, the two bonfires will be close to the single Neutral town and there will be none at the outposts.

Unusual Activity - 15,20 Ashenvale. Kill until the note drops, use your totem, turn the note in, get followup An Innocent Disguise. Head north up the shore to Ashenvale 9, 12 and use the disguise to spy. Use the totem to finish the quest and get Inform the Elder where you turn it in a city hub (locations listed above). She will then open up the following quests:

• Striking Back [Daily] - Summon and kill something. Hellfire one is 67 non-elite. Easy enough.
  
• Ahune, the Frost Lord - Sends you to Luma Skymother outside Slave Pens (in Zangarmarsh).

Luma Skymother's Ice Shards - 20 blossoms reward [blossoms/tabard quest is one time only]. Head into Slave Pens (normal or heroic) and kill the (Midsummer-only) optional boss, Lord Ahune. Luma is just inside Slave Pens, but I think the quest starts when you kill him and loot the Ice Shards (only drop the once). Similar to Headless Horseman in that each party member can summon him once per day (so a party of 5 can do him 5 times a day unless they switch members out). He drops a pet and some epics that people might be interested in.

• Lord Ahune - On Normal mode. Have a tank on the rock elemental elite. Kill the non-elite mobs. Ignore Ahune until his "defenses lower" and he stops spawning adds. Then go all out on him until he comes up and summons adds again. Repeat until death. Drops 3 cloaks, 1 enchanting pattern, and a cool-looking scythe.
  

Stealing Flames - 25 blossoms reward EACH (4 flames to steal)! 100 total! Head into the 4 major cities of the opposing faction and loot their festival bonfire. Keep general and trade channels open to find a raid group going to do this. 70 druids and rogues might be able to solo it because of stealth. Turn in at Festival Talespinner/Loremaster in Org or Ironforge. Aside from the blossoms, you get a nice fiery crown. Must be level 50 to turn it in, but the stolen flames don't disappear from your inventory after the festival is over, so you can keep them to turn in next year if you want to.

I was able to take the Darnassus flame solo, but I was lucky b/c no 70s were around to bother me (level 65 non-elite guards). A team is much safer, and easier because you have to open the fire for a few seconds and anything hitting you breaks it. I couldn't have done it without my AOE fear (stealthers might have an edge).

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Rewards

So far, I'm only interested in a few things. I'll list everything eventually, but start with the most exciting. :)

I easily got 100 blooms for the vestments with a level 38 druid.

• Brazier of Dancing Flames [350] - (BEST ITEM EVER!) Set it down, a fiery Draenei woman dances. /dance with her, you turn into her. /kiss and she curtsies. VERY AWESOME, especially for those of us who wish we could play a Draenei main. Here's a YouTube clip. And a photo of me up above (got it 12:29pm June 21, probably first on my server).
  
• Sandals [200] & Vestments [100] - When you dance, they catch you on fire. The sandals catch your feet (one large flame around your legs, like you're standing in fire), the robes catch your hands (I find this to be a much prettier effect).
• Mantle - Really dumb-looking shoulders. It's a pair of pots with fire coming out of them on your shoulders.