Ah, so you weren’t chosen for Flamekeeper this year? Don’t fret, my friend! The Midsummer Fire Festival isn’t merely about that traditional honour; it’s a time of merriment, a chance to celebrate the hottest season of the year by lighting great fires across the land and sharing in what the elemental spirits can offer. Come to our camps and join in the revelry!

Taken from the old official website.

Back in vanilla with my hunter Tallys, Hugadarn and Navimie

It may officially be Winter on our side of the world but we all know that it’s Summer in Dath’remar (or if your name is Coolidge). The Midsummer Fire Festival has been around since 2008 and like inflation, the loot gets upgraded with each instalment. This year, it will run from Thursday, June 21 to Wednesday, July 4.

So if you’re starting from scratch, here’s what you have to look forward to:

Badlands during Burning Crusade

When you first kill the holiday boss – Lord Ahune, he will drop an item (which everyone can loot) which starts Shards of Ahune, rewarding you with either the blue Tabard of Summer Skies or the orange Tabard of Summer Flames (above) as well as 20 Burning Blossoms. If you decide you want the other colour, you can destroy the tabard you have and then ask the tabard vendor for the other colour – this also counts for the achievement tally. Ahune also has a chance to drop the Ice Chip pet or the Frostscythe of Lord Ahune which only has stamina on it. Blizzard later explained this by saying that they didn’t want the scythe to compete with harder to obtain weapons.

Frigid Frostling

Frostscythe of Lord Ahune

Other items may be purchased from the Midsummer vendors through trading in your Burning Blossoms.

To complete the set you can also obtain the Crown of the Fire Festival as a reward from capturing all the flames from each capital city.

Helm of the Fire Festival

Helm of the Fire Festival

Helm of the Fire Festival

Helm of the Fire Festival – bonfire

Here’s a demonstration of your personal brazier. I didn’t actually test it by cooking anything though.

Brazier of Dancing Flames

Captured Flame and Midsummer 4-pc set

Searing Scorchling and Midsummer 3-pc set

Searing Scorchling

The Searing Scorchling used to be a drop from Lord Ahune but was replaced by the Ice Chip. It was later re-added in the 4.2 patch from a possible item inside Zen’Vorka’s Cache sold by Zen’Vorka. This vendor may be found in the Molten Front once you have collected x30 Marks of the World Tree from dailies.

There are four new achievements for this year:

  1. Flame Keeper of Northrend
  2. Flame Keeper of Cataclysm
  3. Extinguishing the Cataclysm
  4. Extinguishing Northrend

Here are the eight Alliance and eight Horde fires in Northrend.

  • Howling Fjord Fort Wildevar at 58,16 (Alliance) and Camp Winterhoof at 48,13 (Horde)
  • Grizzly Hills Amberpine Lodge at 34,61 (Alliance) and Conquest Hold at 19,61 (Horde)
  • Zul’drak The Argent Stand at 41,61 (Alliance) and the Argent Stand at 43,71 (Horde)
  • Storm Peaks K3 at 42,87 (Alliance) and K3 at 40,86 (Horde)
  • Crystalsong Forest Windrunner’s Overlook at 78,75 (Alliance) and Sunreaver’s Command at 80,53 (Horde)
  • Dragonblight Wintergarde Keep at 75,44 (Alliance) and Agmar’s Hammer at 39,48 (Horde)
  • Borean Tundra Fizzcrank Airstrip at 55,20 (Alliance) and Bor’gorok Outpost at 51,12 (Horde)
  • Sholazar Basin River’s Heart at 47,66 (Alliance) and River’s Heart at 47,62 (Horde)

The Uldum and Twilight Highlands fires are separate with the Deepholm, Vashj’ir, and Mount Hyjal fires being neutral.

  • Mount Hyjal Nordrassil at 62,22 (neutral)
  • Vashj’ir Silver Tide Hollow at 49,42 (neutral)
  • Deepholm Temple of Earth at 49,51 (neutral)
  • Uldum Ramkahen at 53,32 (Alliance) and Ramkahen at 53,34 (Horde)
  • Twilight Highlands Thundermar at 47,28 (Alliance) and Bloodgulch at 53,46 (Horde)

So good luck if you have a busy week ahead of you.