Autumn Festivals

Notable birthdays this season are:

Cook-off

This event happens on the first Monday of Autumn.

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This contest judges your mastery of hoarding ingredients to make a recipe from the Main Dish cooking category. You'll also need to have the appropriate utensils in your kitchen. Once your bazaar reaches Rank 3 (Village Bazaar), Goran's Construction will have the missing pieces of your kitchen. A handy Frying Pan costs 10,000 G, the Cooking Pot costs 30,000 G, and the Oven costs 50,000 G. Several main dish recipes require at least one of these utensils to successfully prepare.

Generally, a winning entry will consider 1) a high base price (which you can see when browsing your kitchen cookbook) and 2) a high Star rank. Even if the star rank is a little on the low side, the price of the meal may be enough to achieve first place.

A good, general-purpose recipe is Omelet Rice if you can make it a 5-Star dish, as it doesn't require any extra cooking utensils. A 4-Star Omelet Rice will still get you 2nd place, though. If you need Cooked Rice, Cafe Madeleine is open during the Cook-off as long as it is not taking place on a Thursday, when the cafe is closed. All of Madeleine's courses are at 0.5-Star quality, so there's no point in entering one of her meals unless you simply want to participate.

A 7-star meal is a good contender for taking first place.

Bring your main course meal to Felix in the town plaza between 12:00 pm and 4:00 pm. Hold the meal in your hands, being careful not to eat it, and then talk to Felix to submit the entry. You'll be matched with three random Zephyr Town villagers who have meals for Pierre to judge. Prizes will be awarded after he gives his opinion on all the Cook-off entries.

The grand prize is a Cook-Off Trophy for the Memento shelf in the farmhouse, 50 Curry Powder, the recipe for Supreme Curry, and a large boost of friendship with the villagers. Second place is 20 Soy Sauce (3-Star) and a medium boost of friendship. Third place is 10 Cooked Rice (2-Star) and also a medium boost of friendship, while last place is no prize, but you do get a small friendship boost.

There is only a gold trophy awarded for Cook-off.

Bake-Off

This event takes place on the first Tuesday of the season, the day after the Cook-Off contest.

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This contest is similar to the Cook-off, but for sweet dessert recipes. The same rules apply: Star Rank and base price. Cakes and pies are going to require the use of an Oven, while Donuts need a Pot, but the remaining dessert recipes can be whipped up without any extra utensils. Like before, 7-star desserts will judge best.

Bring your dessert dish to Felix, just like before, and then stand by while Pierre gives his critique.

First place is the Bake-off Trophy for the Memento shelf, 50 Wheat Flour (5-Star), the Whole Chocolate Cake recipe, and a large friendship gain with the Zephyr Town villagers. Second place is 20 Butter (3-Star) and a medium boost of friendship. Third place is 10 Wheat Flour (2-Star) and medium friendship, while last place is a small friendship gain.

If you take first place in both Cook-off and Bake-off on consecutive days, you'll receive a bonus prize of 30 Butter+ (5-Star).

Animal Show

This festival happens on either the second Friday of the season or the third Friday.

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This is a rank-based contest where the relationship (heart level) with your animals is judged by Woofio. If you win, the quality of the goods the winning animal produces will increase. In fact, every animal of that type will have a boost in quality. For example, winning with a Chicken will increase egg quality for all Chickens, but will not influence egg quality of Silkie Chickens because that's a different animal family. A Cow is different from a Buffalo. You get the idea.

To begin, talk to Mayor Felix in the town plaza from 12:00 pm to 4:00 pm. He'll ask you to select the contest entry from your barn. Pick the animal with the most number of friendship hearts as your best contestant, then sit back and let the judging begin!

Having a full Health bar is also important. A sick animal, even by just a little bit, will reduce your chance of taking first place.

Bronze first-prize will receive 9 Delicious Fodder Seeds, a large boost to the animal's friendship and happiness, and a large boost with the villagers' friendship levels. First-time winners will also receive a Bronze Animal Show trophy for the Memento display shelf and a Animal Show Bronze Decor item for the bazaar stall. Second-place will receive 9 fodder seeds and medium boosts, while third place receives 10 Fodder and small boosts.

A bronze-show winner can be entered into a future show to earn silver rank, and then entered again to win gold. You don't have to enter the same animal to win future ranks. The future contest entry animal simply has to be from the same family as the past winner.

A silver rank first-place winner will receive 9 Fast Fodder Seeds and a large boost in villager friendship and animal friendship/happiness levels. First-time winners will also receive a Silver Animal Show trophy and an Animal Show Silver Decor bazaar stall item. Second place winners will get 9 Delicious Fodder Seeds and medium boosts. A third-place finisher in the silver rank competition will receive 20 Fodder and small boosts.

The highest-level gold place winner will receive 9 Soothing Fodder Seeds and a large boost in villager friendship, animal friendship, and animal happiness. First-time winners will also get the Gold Animal Show trophy for the memento shelf and a Gold Animal Show Decor for the bazaar booth. Second-place in the gold competition will receive 9 Fast Fodder seeds and a medium boost with the villagers and contest entry animal. Third place will receive 30 Fodder and a small boost of friendship/happiness.

The products produced by the winning animal will also expand past 5 stars of quality. Bronze winners can produce 6-star quality goods, while silver winners can produce 7-star quality goods. Winning a Gold-rank Animal Festival will add your BRAND mark to the produced goods, resulting in a 3x boost to the products' sale price.

Miguel will start accepting orders for Delicious Fodder Seeds, (420 G), Fast Fodder Seeds (420 G), and Soothing Fodder Seeds (1260 G) after you acquire them, either from a contest win, a title achievement, or any other way.

Juice Festival

This gathering will take place either the third Thursday of Autumn or the fourth Thursday, depending on how many Thursdays there are in the season. The last Thursday is always reserved for the Pumpkin Festival (see below).

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The Juice Festival is a social event held by the villagers of Zephyr Town, where everyone donates their best juice drink. These meals can be crafted using your kitchen. In your first year, Mayor Felix will explain the festival to you the day before and donate a 1-Star Grape Juice so you can participate.

To begin the party, hold your drink offering and talk to Mayor Felix in the town plaza from 12:00 pm to 4:00 pm. Be careful not to activate the Eat command instead of the Talk command! Once the juice is loose, Erik will move the event activity to the social part, where you'll see a small cut scene.

At the conclusion, Erik will thank you for the contribution. Depending on the Star Rank of your festival juice submission, you'll receive the following rewards:

(In the Japanese version, "Fruit Juice" is called "Sangria Juice". As Sangria is often an alcoholic beverage, the drink was translated as "Fruit" instead.)

Crop Show

This plant judging contest takes place on the fourth Monday of Autumn.

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In this festival, this season's plant produce is judged based on star rank. Each category won will increase the maximum star rank of future-produced crops. Ideally, entering (and winning) using crops that regrow will give you more bang for your buck compared to entering single-harvest crops. Multi-harvest crops that are harvestable during Autumn are Cucumber, Eggplant, Green Bell Pepper, Sweet Potato, and Tomato. Tree fruit are Apple, Blueberry, Green Grape, Olive, and Red Grape.

Between 12:00 pm and 4:00 pm, head to the town plaza. Have the contest entry crop held in your hands and talk to Mayor Felix to submit the entry. Crop master Matsuba will then judge the crop based on its star rank. The higher, the better!

Winning the bronze rank will reward you with 9 Bok Choy seeds of 1.5-Star rank, a large boost of friendship with the villagers, and a max limit of 6 stars for the winning crop's star rank. Second place is 9 Carrot Seeds of 1.5-Star rank and a medium boost of friendship, and third place is 30 Fertilizer (1.5-Star) and a small bit of friendship with the villagers. First-time bronze winners will also receive a Crop Show Bronze Trophy to display on the farmhouse Memento shelf and a Crops Show Bronze Decor small decoration for the bazaar stall.

Silver rank grand-prize winners receive 9 Sweet Potato Seeds (3-star), a large boost of friendship with the villagers, and a max limit of 7 stars of quality. First time silver rank winters also receive a Crop Show Silver Trophy and a Crops Show Silver Decor. Second place in silver receives 9 Carrot Seeds (3-Star) and medium friendship boosts. Third place is 30 Fertilizer (3-star) and a small boost of friendship.

High-ranking gold contest winners receive 54 Cauliflower Seeds (5-Star), the large friendship boost, and a BRAND associated with the winning crop, which boosts the sale price by 3x. Second-place gold winners receive 9 Carrot Seeds (5-Star) and a medium friendship boost, while third place awards 30 Fertilizer (5-Star) and a small friendship boost.

A branded crop will lose its BRAND status once processed or cooked.

Pumpkin Festival

This event occurs on the last Thursday of Autumn

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A day of sweets for only the kids (bah!). For everyone else, this is a normal 'ol day in Zephyr Town. On this day, the local kids will walk into your farmhouse with the expectation of receiving a dessert dish. This gift will boost friendship with the festival participants.

The kids will stand inside the doorway for about 50 minutes, waiting for their Pumpkin Festival gift. I haven't seen any bad results for not giving the kids a gift.

The kids will be on the farm before their entry time. Giving them a dessert at this point is NOT part of the Pumpkin Festival. They'll accept the gift as they would any other day. This also means you can give two gifts this day: one Pumpkin gift and one normal gift.

Also, Laurie and Sylvia's festival dessert counts for both girls.

Your child doesn't visit the front door like the other kids. Instead, you can give your kid a Pumpkin Festival gift at any time.

Qualifying gifts are those from the dessert category of your cookbook. The dish description will note whether it makes for a good Pumpkin Festival present.

Cafe Madeleine is closed on Thursdays. If you plan on buying treats, make sure you do this in the days before the Pumpkin Festival.