The Sims 4: City Living expansion pack brings back festivals! The festivals in The Sims 4 are not about holidays, though – they celebrate different aspects of Sim culture. We have the Spice Festival, the Flea Market, Geekcon, the Humor and Hijinks Festival, and the Romance Festival. Each festival has its own flavor, but they all have some things in common. They all have a swag stand where you can buy festival specific snow globes (which can also be found for free in the free boxes around San Myshuno) and fireworks. The type of fireworks is the same for each festival, but every festival has its own color, The spice festival, for example, is green.
Now, some more about each festival!
Spice Festival
This festival takes place, strangely enough, in the Spice Market district and is all about food flavor. Yes, there’s the spicy food challenge (which my sim failed miserably) but it’s not all about setting your sim’s mouth on fire.
There’s a table of food to sample – one of my sims had a dish of the sweet and sour pork, which taught her that she’s really bad with chopssticks. There’s also the garden – my sim harvested some plants they didn’t have – and they got acquainted with the new bubble blower.
They also visited the swag stand where they picked up some fireworks and some additional spices like chili powder and curry to use at home making the new dishes they are discovering around San Myshuno.
Flea Market
This festival, which also takes place in the Spice Market District, is a chance for your sims to sell extra produce, paintings, sculptures, collectibles, and the like. There is a table and a wall where they can set up their wares and sell, sell sell. They can also browse the other stands and pick up some items to furnish their apartments or complete their collections.
I think that the best thing about the flea market might be the swap meet aspect of it, though. If you are looking to complete some collections, it is worth it to hang onto your duplicates of that type and take them to the flea market. You can talk to anyone attending the market and “trade collectibles” with them. You give them what you want to of posters, snow globes, crystals, fossils, frogs, metals, or My Sim Trophies, and they will give you back random items from that same collection in a 1:1 trade. Give them 6 fossils, get 6 random fossils back. You may get back ones you already have, but perhaps you just might get that oh so rare fossil that you have been trying to dig up since your current sim’s grandfather was a child. This is not the best way to make money, as you may end up trading rare collectibles for common, but it’s a great way to fill in some gaps in your collections.
Geekcon
Geekcon takes place at Planet Honey Pop in the Fashion District and is a celebration of all things geek. There are cosplayers aplenty, and they might even let your sims take a selfie with them.
But watching the cosplayers isn’t the only thing to do. Your sims can talk to other geeks about important things like the proper pronunciation of ‘gif’, rant about your favorite show being cancelled and much more. There’s a hacking competition for some nice prizes, video games to be played, including trying out the motion gaming rig, and two rockets – one ready to fly and one in the building stage, so your sims who don’t have the room or the funds to have a rocket of their own can build a rocket and explore space. Your sims can also observe the heavens (or spy on other apartments) with the telescope. Your sims might see more than they bargained for if they do that, though.
And if that isn’t enough, your sims will gain skills faster than normal at the festival, so if your sim needs to build some geeky skills, this is the place to do it!
Humor and Hijinks Festival
The Humor and Hijinks Festival takes place in the Fashion District and is a competition between the light side – comedy – and the dark side – mischief. When a sim arrives at the festival they pick a side by drinking either light tea or dark tea. Be careful not to let your sims drink both teas, or they will get a 2 hour Dazed moodlet.
A sim on the light, or humor, side gains points for their team every time they do a “funny” interaction. Sims on the dark, or hijinks, side gain points for their team every time they do a “mischief” interaction. There’s a microphone for sims to practice their comedy routines, and enough festival goers to entertain or torment that your sim will have no trouble scoring plenty of points for their team. At the end of the festival the members of the winning team get a rather nice prize, so it’s definitely worth staying until the end for this one. Even if your sim’s team doesn’t win, the fireworks are nice.
Romance Festival
Love is in the air at the romance festival, which takes place in the Fashion District. The trees are in bloom, the Sakura tea is flowing, and the wedding arch is ready to go. Bah, humbug, you say? Well, there are also flowers to be picked. My sims managed to pick up some dragonfruit and birds of paradise, so it’s well worth heading to the festival to pick up some flowers your sim might be missing from their collection. If your sim has been looking for love in all the wrong places, they can talk to the romance guru to get a glimpse of their romance destiny.
There’s plenty for your “player” sims to do as well – there are festival specific “friendly flirting” socials that they can do, like “joke” about getting together, throwing flower petals, and romantic socials of all types have a higher chance of success at the festival.
If one of your sims has been itching to pop the question, the festival is a great place to do so. They can head right over to the wedding arch and get married then and there.
If your sims are already married, they can renew their vows at the arch, which will get them a happy moodlet, so it’s well worth doing. Don’t forget to have them sample the tea before they go home – it packs a flirty punch!
Final Thoughts:
I came into City Living expecting to not like the festivals, as I never had much use for the festivals in The Sims 3. More often than not my sims completely skipped them. But these festivals are not what I was expecting. They’re smaller, but at the same time there are more useful things to do at these festivals. There are more collectibles, more opportunities to build skills, and even some ways to pick up some cash. The festivals are short enough – usually about 8 game hours – that your sim can’t really do everything in one visit, so that means you won’t do everything in the first week and then never go back. All in all I’d say that the festivals are a wonderful addition to the game. I look forward to having all my sims visit them.
The Humor and Hijinks festival does not take place in the fashion district, it takes place in the arts district