Midsummer Fire Festival

The Midsummer Fire Festival is a seasonal event that celebrates the hottest season of the year. It starts on the (earthly) northern summer solstice, and lasts about two weeks (June 21 - July 4). It is similar to the Lunar Festival and other holidays, featuring some useful buffs, food, and toys to play with.

It was introduced in Patch 1.11, and given a major revamp in June 2008.

From Midsummer Fire Festival on the official website:


 * 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 honor; 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!

The ending of the Festival seems to have been merged with the Engineers' Explosive Extravaganza holiday:


 * The lengthy Midsummer Fire Festival traditionally ends with the sky itself being set alight. The goblins of Undermine have lent their considerable skill (and copious amounts of gunpowder) to the task, resulting in a tremendous fireworks show!  Take up a festival mug and raise a toast to the season as the multicolored explosions dance across the sky above you!

Buffs

 * Using Ribbon Poles causes a colorful streamer of energy to go to your hand and causes you to dance. This gives a 3-minute Ribbon Dance buff increasing earned experience by 10%.  This buff stacks up to 20 times (60 minutes), increasing its duration by 3 minutes for every 3 seconds you keep dancing around the pole.
 * When thrown into a festival fire, Burning Blossoms give you a buff Fire Festival Fury, 3% critical strike and spell critical strike rating for sixty minutes as well as causing fire damage to attackers.
 * If a bonfire has gone out, tossing a Burning Blossom in it will provide a zone-wide buff, Bonfire's Blessing, that gives you a 30% chance to inflict ( x 10) Fire damage on any melee, ranged, or spell attack. Bonfire's Blessing is capable of delivering a critical hit with 100% additional damage and is affected by bonus spell damage.  This buff goes away if the opposite faction desecrates the bonfire.
 * Special flame samples can be collected from the bonfires in each of the four main cities of the opposing faction. Each sample will begin a quest called "Stealing the [City]'s Flame."  Upon completing each quest, everyone in the capital city will receive Fire Festival Fortitude, a +30 stamina buff.  Once all 4 have been collected and returned to a Festival representative, you receive the quest  and are rewarded with the Crown of the Fire Festival.

Burning Blossom redemption
Below are the items you can purchase with Burning Blossom at Midsummer Suppliers and Midsummer Merchants. You can get 20 Blossoms every day through daily quests. In 2010, it was possible to get 702 (H)/692 (A) Blossoms from the other quests, with the release of Cataclysm and the addition of more bonfires, it is now possible to get all rewards in one year. Furthermore, each Satchel of Chilled Goods contains 5-15 Burning Blossoms.

Quests
can be earned through a variety of quests. The blossoms can be consumed for a small buff or saved for a variety of items including the Brazier of Dancing Flames or the Captured Flame.





Daily quests:



Quest chains:

Lord Ahune
A new chain of quests was added to the game, beginning at a /. The end of the chain culminates in a daily quest to summon Lord Ahune, a new boss in the Slave Pens.

Bonfires
The at each of your own faction's bonfires offers you Quest:Honor the Flame.

Right-clicking a bonfire of the opposite faction offers. The act of dousing a bonfire does not pull guards (though they will aggro as normal based on range and level - Wildhammer Stronghold in Shadowmoon Valley requires a flying mount or stealth to avoid aggro), making this a fast and easy way to generate money and Burning Blossoms. Be warned that dousing the opposite faction's bonfire will flag you for PVP combat.

The bonfires of capital cities have separate quests, and you cannot Honor the Flame of your own faction's Capitals.

There are a grand total of 86 bonfires across the four continents: 42 Horde, 44 Alliance. Excluding the 4 capital cities on each side, that leaves 38 and 40.
 * Alliance: $$38 \times 10+40 \times 5+4 \times 25=680$$ total Burning Blossoms available
 * Horde: $$38 \times 5+40 \times 10+4 \times 25=690$$ total Burning Blossoms available

See and  for suggested routes.

Interactive maps of the bonfire locations can be found at scribblemaps and WyriMaps.

Stealing the Cities' Flames
Each faction can loot the Flames of the opposing faction's cities, each of which starts a quest. Stealing all four cities flames will offer the quest.

Horde
 * Orgrimmar - Next to Mannoroth's armor in the Valley of Wisdom
 * Thunder Bluff - On the Spirit Rise
 * Undercity - In the courtyard, just inside
 * Silvermoon City - Court of the Sun, inside, in the back


 * Flame of Darnassus ->
 * Flame of Ironforge ->
 * Flame of Stormwind ->
 * Flame of the Exodar ->

Alliance
 * Stormwind - Outside Stormwind Stockades, North of Mage Quarter
 * Ironforge - Hall of Explorers
 * Darnassus - Rut'theran Village
 * The Exodar - The Crystal Hall


 * Flame of Orgrimmar ->
 * Flame of Thunder Bluff ->
 * Flame of the Undercity ->
 * Flame of Silvermoon ->

Reward: Crown of the Fire Festival (no bonuses).

Sortable list of bonfires

 * See also Alliance Bonfires and Horde Bonfires.

2010
Previously, the Reveler set items could be used to get Burning Hot Pole Dance and then returned (within 2 hours of purchase) for a full refund, allowing you to use those Blossoms for other purchases. In 2010, Festival Garb (Mantle of the Fire Festival Vestment of Summer Sandals of Summer) is no longer refundable, so spend your Blossoms wisely!

2009 issues
When the Midsummer event started, flags for completion of the quests in 2008 had not been reset, preventing those who had completed one-time quests in 2008 from getting those quests and gathering Burning Blossoms. Further, characters above level 70 did not have a version of the quest.

This fix allowed anyone who had already completed any bonfire quests in 2009 before the fix was applied to gather more Blossoms that year than are usually available. Completed achievements were not revoked, but partially completed ones lost all progress. The Quest:Striking Back (level 67) quest for 67-70 characters was extended to 67-80, once again allowing 20 Blossoms per day from daily quests.

While the initial patch was to have reset all event quests, it proved incomplete in many cases. Many reported being unable to complete the "city flames" quests for Exodar and Silvermoon despite being able to repeat those for other cities. At least one realm was not reset properly the first time, and further issues were found. A number of players have continued to have problems with the Exodar and Silvermoon city flame quests.