Festivale Event, a Carnival-inspired event in Animal Crossing New Horizons organized by Pave, occurs in February every year, bringing with it a fun new activity. While the Festivale Event itself only runs for just a day, 24 hours of real-life time, there are a few days of run-up time during which you can purchase themed items.
Animal Crossing New Horizons Festivale event dates
The Festivale Event in ACNH happens on a different day every year. The date changes based on Easter/Lent dates. While typically, in previous years, Festivale started near the 3rd week of February, in 2024, the event is happening early and will start on the 12th of February.
Below, we have mentioned the Animal Crossing New Horizons Festivale event dates for a couple of years so you can be prepared beforehand
- 12th February, 2024
- 3rd March, 2025
- 16th February, 2026
- 8th February, 2027
There are certain things that you should do before the Festivale Event hits your island in ACNH. Since you will be spending most of your time on Festivale Day collecting feathers, you should decorate your island with Festivale-themed items beforehand. You can purchase most of these Festivale-themed items from Nook’s Cranny starting Feb 1st for a certain amount of Bells.
Then, you will need to focus on getting your hands on Festivale Clothing in honor of the Festivale Event. If you like the idea of wearing a costume or dressing up in Festivale-themed clothing, it will definitely be worth buying them in advance from the Able Sisters from Feb 1st and onwards.
Lastly, you should also purchase the Festivale Reaction pack from Nook’s Cranny before the Festivale Event, and it will cost you around 20,000 Bells in Animal Crossing: New Horizons.
It is not mandatory, but if you want to join in with the villagers and have fun dancing during Festivale, then purchasing this specific pack is the perfect choice for the Festivale Event.
Where to find Pave for Festivale Event
The first major change that you will notice after loading ACNH on Festivale will come in the form of confetti dropping from the sky. If you make your way to the plaza, you will find an extravagant peacock NPC known as Pave dancing in the plaza.
He will be there on the appointed day in both the Northern and Southern hemispheres in ACNH. Pave will be present there until 5 am (the next day), so you will need to complete the Festivale Event activities before that time and meet him.
However, you need to be dressed in Festivale clothes when you talk to Pave in Animal Crossing New Horizons because if you aren’t wearing those, then the peacock will get mad and yell at you, demanding you change.
After talking to Pave with the correct Festivale-themed outfits equipped, you will get the Rainbow Feather DIY. It will be an essential item/ recipe for preparing the rainbow-colored feathers during the rest of the Festivale event.
During your conversation with Pave, you will be tasked with collecting different colored feathers (Red, Blue, Green, Purple, Rainbow).
At this point, you need to note that if you give him 3 colored feathers of the same color, you will end up receiving a random Festivale (furniture item) of that same color.
On the other hand, handing Pave just one rainbow feather will guarantee you a random Festivale furniture item, which previously cost you three feathers, so make sure to keep an eye out for these feathers in ACNH.
How to gather the colored Festivale Feathers in ACNH
You will only have one task, and it will be to gather the colored feathers throughout the Festivale Event. These colored items can be distinguished easily from the rest of the items and can be found floating at various places throughout the day in ACNH.
To catch these feathers, you will need to use the Net while running around town in search of these floating items.
Furthermore, the floating feathers cannot be caught automatically if you run into them, unlike the cherry blossoms, maple leaves, etc. You will need to position yourself directly next to them and then press the A button to swipe your net on the colored feather, and you will be able to get it quite easily.
These special Festivale feathers can be found floating around different areas in Animal Crossing: New Horizons. You need to make sure to catch all the feathers you want throughout the day.
You will also notice that the NPC villagers also indulge in collecting colored feathers during the Festivale. You can also talk to them and offer to trade feathers in case you are unable to find and collect certain colors.
How to get Festivale furniture in Animals Crossing New Horizons
Once you have collected the colored feathers, you can make your way back to the plaza/ town square to meet with Pave again to collect your Festivale items in ACNH. Pave will be overjoyed at receiving the rainbow feathers or other colored feathers, and he will give his unique Festivale dance performance in Animals Crossing: New Horizons.
If you give Pave 3 feathers of the same color, excluding the rainbow feathers, you’ll get a random Festivale item out of the 9 furniture Festivale items.
- Festivale Balloon Lamp
- Festivale Drum
- Festivale Lamp
- Festivale Stage
- Festivale Flag
- Festivale Confetti Machine
- Festivale Garland
- Festivale Stall
- Festivale Parasol
Similarly, if you proceed to hand over 9 batches of feathers to Pave for all nine Festivale items, he will then ask for three more rainbow feathers. In exchange for finding those and giving them to Pave, he will present his greatest Viva Festivale dance and then give you the exclusive Festivale Float item in ACNH.
On the other hand, you can easily customize the rest of the Festivale furniture items according to your preferences in Animal Crossing: New Horizons. It is a fairly simple task that will involve the Rainbow Feather DIY recipe that you obtained at the start of the Festivale Event.
Using this recipe, you can easily use the required number of colored feathers to craft additional rainbow feathers successfully.
You will also notice that finding the normal colored feathers is an easier task whereas coming across a rainbow feather will be rare. However, if you find the rest of the feathers in abundance, then you can also use each of these to craft a rainbow feather.
Because of that, it is better to focus on collecting as many regular color feathers as possible instead of searching for Rainbow feathers.
How to customize Festivale Items in ACNH
All you need to do is go to a DIY table and choose the customize option in Animal Crossing: New Horizons. From there, you can select the color of the item you want, even the rainbow color.
There are some items that only need one rainbow feather in order to be customized, while some require two or more colored feathers. These specific items will have a grey feather icon below them, suggesting that you need more colored feathers.
In total, it will take 13 Rainbow Feathers to customize all of the Festivale items in ACNH. This way, you can set the colors of these particular items according to your island’s theme.
Sometimes, the Festivale Items sold at Nook’s Cranny are locked to your airport color, and you can check these in the table below:
| Airport Color | Festivale items color |
| Blue | Red Festivale items |
| Yellow | Blue Festivale items |
| Green | Green Festivale items |
| Orange | Purple Festivale items |
