Stardew Valley: Flower Dance Festival Guide

Dress in your best and pick a partner, it’s time for the Flower Dance Festival in Stardew Valley!

When Spring is in the air in Stardew Valley, it won't be long until the Flower Dance Festival comes around. Everyone gets together, as they do with all of the festivals and events in the Valley, to spend the day together chatting and, to the dismay of some of the NPCs, dancing.

There are also items you can purchase, and you can complete the Introductions Quest if you haven't already. However, in Year 1, it can be challenging to find a partner of your own to dance with, which is one of the biggest draws of the festival.

When And Where Is The Flower Dance?

The Flower Dance takes place on Spring 24 and it will start at 9 am. In order to attend the Flower Dance, you'll head south through your farm into Cindersap Forest, or you can also enter from town.

If you don't enter at 9 am, you have until 2 pm that day to make your way to the festival. Any later than that and you will miss out.

As soon as the screen loads, it will automatically place you in a special, sectioned-off portion of the forest that is only available during the festival. Once you leave the festival, you will be back in front of your home at 10 pm.

This does mean that you'll have very little time during the day for other activities and you can not enter the first before 9 amto forage, chop trees, or visit the Secret Woods or The Wizard.

Every shop and every home will be locked to the player on the day of the Flower Dance Festival. Tools being upgraded by Clint and buildings being constructed by Robin during this time will take one extra day .

What Is The Flower Dance?

The Flower Dance is a festival that brings together all of Stardew Valley together as the Bachelors and Bachelorettes dance together, which is a long-standing tradition for the villagers. You can ask any of the dateable NPCs to dance; however, if you don't have at least four hearts with them, the NPC will refuse.

"Hearts" is the measurement of Friendship in Stardew Valley.

Along with the dance, Pierre will have a shop set up that you can purchase from. You can also speak to any of the guests, but can only ask the single NPCs if they'd like to dance.

Pierre's Booth

As soon as you enter the area where the dance is set up, the first thing you'll see is Pierre's Booth. Once the dancing has started, you won't be able to buy anything from Pierre, so you'll want to look at his stock and buy items from him before talking to Mayor Lewis.

This is everything he will have in his shop:

His stock will be the same each year, no matter if you've attended before or not.

The Bachelors And Bachelorettes

All the Bachelors and Bachelorettes are available to dance with. However, only one that you have at least four hearts with will agree to dance with you.

If you are not participating, the dance partners will be:

• Elliot and Leah
• Harvey and Maru
• Shane and Emily
• Alex and Haley
• Sam and Penny
• Sebastian and Abigail

If you are participating, you will replace the opposite of whoever your dance partner is while they stand off to the side, watching the dance.

How To Achieve Four Hearts

This can be difficult to achieve in your first year as you have very little opportunity to reach this level with everyone. Especially before the Flower Dance. However, some are easier to befriend in time than others.

Haley

Haley is the first birthday in the year out of all of the single NPCs, taking place on Spring 14. This allows you to give her a gift that will greatly boost her friendship points.

Although it is hard to get any of her personal "loved" gifts in Spring Year 1, if you find a gold or iridium quality Daffodil, this will work wonders. There are also Universal Loves and Universal Likes, which are gifts loved and liked by everyone; giving her one of these will work as well, as the only ones she doesn't like are vegetables.

Gifts given on birthdays have eight times the effect on friendship that they would regularly.

Shane

Shane's birthday also falls before the Flower Dance, on Spring 20, and two of his loved gifts, Beer and Pizza, are sold by Gus all the time. This makes it extremely easy to befriend him before the festival.

If you're looking to save money, you can also get him a Universal Like (except pickles), any egg (except for void eggs), and any fruit. The only exception to fruit is a Hot Pepper, which is a loved gift for him.

You can make beer, but this requires hops and a keg. Hops is a Summer crop , so you most likely won't be able to get any made in time.

Leah

Leah doesn't have a birthday before the event, but she's both easy to find to talk to, as well as easy to gift. One of her loved gifts is Salad, which can be purchased from Gus every day for 220g.

Harvey

Like Leah, Harvey doesn't have a birthday before the dance, but he is easy to track down and give gifts to. One of his loved gifts is coffee, which can be purchased from Gus as well, and he also loves pickles, which you can make once you hit Farming level four.

He loves wine as well, but you'll have to be Farming level eight to make your own.

Maru

Maru has some difficult-to-get loved gifts, but some are Spring crops you'll have access to before the Flower Dance. One loved gift is cauliflower, which you can start growing as soon as your first day on the farm.

Another loved gift is strawberries, which you can purchase the seeds for from Pierre during the Egg Festival.

Emily

Emily is a crystal girlie and thus loves any of the main gemstones you can find in The Mines. These are:

• Amethyst
• Aquamarine
• Emerald
• Jade
• Ruby
• Topaz

Although you may want to hold onto these or sell them in the early game, if you want to dance with Emily, you can give them to her instead and find her at the Stardrop Saloon just about every night.

To ensure you reach the hearts needed for Leah, Harvey, Maru, and Emily, you should also prioritize talking to them every day. Also, check the Help Wanted board , since fulfilling requests for them also raises Friendship.

How To Start The Dancing

The dancing won't start until you speak with Mayor Lewis twice. The second time, he will ask you if the dancing should begin.

If you want to buy from Pierre or ask someone to dance, you have to do so before telling the Mayor you'd like to start the dance .

There is a cutscene and music that plays while the dance goes on and the NPCs who are in the dance will have their clothes changed for the event. Your farmer, however, will not have their appearance changed if you are participating.

Dancing While Married

If you attend the Flower Dance after you are married, you can still dance with any partner. The above rules of having four hearts with the NPC still applies.

If you dance with someone other than your spouse, they may dance with someone else as well.