Holiday ideas

[Biggstick]

Context. I have a 6 Player party of level 7 PC's, made up of: a Dragonborn Barbarian/Paladin of Bahamut, a Tiefling Life Cleric of Bahamut, a Dragonborn Monk of Bahamut, a Kenku Swashbuckler, a Goblin Eldritch Knight (primarily an Archer), and an Eladrin (Elf) Lore Bard (the elf happens to have been raised in Silverymoon as a home away from the Fey Wild). The Dragonborn Barbarian and Tiefling Cleric are females, the rest are male. The Players are running through Storm King's Thunder, and are currently collecting relics throughout the north to return to the Eye of the All Father. It's the year 1487 DR.

So I totally forgot to plan for this, as I've been focusing on other things at work. I'm looking for ideas for what my Players can do while they're in Silverymoon during the Midsummer annual holiday. They've fought quite a bit and are looking forward to some downtime in the Elven city of Silverymoon. For those not familiar with what the Midsummer holiday entails, here is the description of it from Sword Coast Adventure r's Guide.

Midsummer. The midpoint of summer is a day of feasting, carousing, betrothals, and basking in the pleasant weather. Storms on Midsummer night are seen as bad omens and signs of ill fortune, and sometimes interpreted as divine disapproval of the romances or marriages sparked by the day's events.

So what are some interesting things I can have going on here?

[Zanthy1]

Maypole dancing, bobbing for apples, music festivals and bonfires, great storytellers (perhaps with hints about prophecies or something campaign related), Single NPCs flirting with various members of the party, crafts fair with trinkets galore for sale, pick pockets making some money off of tourists, and everyone's favorite, Ye Olde playwright theatrical performance.

[Specter]

Would a good old gambling be out of question? At least craps is practically metagame.

[90sMusic]

If it's all about the elves... I don't imagine they do much in the way of "fun"... But i'll throw out some more human-oriented ideas.

How about a race?

To make it a bit more interesting, you could make it a triathalon type deal where you could run for the first bit, maybe ride a mount for the second leg, and perhaps swimming for the final bit?

For the running part, i'd probably just let class/race features control your max speed but make constitution checks to maintain that speed because running a long distance at full speed is a MUCH different thing than short bursts of speed in combat, but the mount part could be dictated by animal handling rolls and swimming part by athletics rolls. Magic is of course against the rules.

That could be a fun distraction for some players. Could also have betting on the racers to give other players something they can do during that. The general theme and idea behind the race could be something along the lines of racing to the water for a swim because it's so hot (being midsummer).

Could also have a fishing tournament, winner gets a magical fishing pole that has some sort of minor ability like maybe it attracts fish (giving you advantage on survival checks for fishing later in the adventure or something like that). Would be a nice souvenir and provide a minor boon the party too.

The ol "guess how many jellybeans" game is a classic and could easily be adapted to suit your setting and D&D in general.

"Throwing stuff" is always a popular game. Whether it is throwing darts at balloons (or target boards) or throwing pumpkins into baskets or throwing rocks at a stuffed target, whatever. It's very common in summer festivals. Just pick something thematically appropriate.

How about "hunt the giant ass turkey"? They could use the Enlarge spell on a turkey, or some other creature, and release it into the wilds hour before and participants divide into teams to hunt it down to bring back as part of a feast. Could even make it a more dangerous animal like a boar so that when it's made large it could be threatening to the party.

Dancing is always a thing at festivals. They could just watch a big show dedicated to it, or they could be participants.

They could put on a play and invite members of the audience to the stage to participate in key roles so they can direct the outcome of the play, that sort of thing.

Pie eating contest.

Baking competition. Etc

[Safety Sword]

Archery contest.

Basket weaving.

[scalyfreak]

Maypole dancing, bobbing for apples, music festivals and bonfires, great storytellers (perhaps with hints about prophecies or something campaign related), Single NPCs flirting with various members of the party, crafts fair with trinkets galore for sale, pick pockets making some money off of tourists, and everyone's favorite, Ye Olde playwright theatrical performance.

All of this!

And in addition to all of that: Games! Let there be archery contests. Let there be a folk dance marathon with great glory and bragging rights for the last couple standing. Strength competitions! (Look up the Highland Games in Scotland for inspiration.) Pie eating contests! Jousting tournament if there are knights. Sword fighting and wrestling contests if there aren't. Vote for this year's Miss Silverymoon.

[Biggstick]

Thank you all for the suggestions! My Players took longer then expected to make it to Silverymoon, thus giving me another week to plan for said event. I will take all of these suggestions into consideration!