Turbine and Codemasters have announced that the first annual Summer Solstice Festival, on of many planned in-game celebrations, will begin on June 20th.

"The Summer Solstice Festival, the first of many planned seasonal celebrations in Middle-earth, will offer players a variety of quests, vendors and events to highlight this special time of year.  The Lord of the Rings Online has been enthusiastically received by many gaming critics, including The New York Times, USA Today, Yahoo!, PC Gamer, GameSpot and Game Informer in the US as well as The Sunday Times, The Guardian, CVG, Eurogamer, PC Juegos and 4Gamers in Europe.

"The Summer Solstice Festival is the first of many seasonal events that we have planned for The Lord of the Rings Online," said Jeffrey Anderson, president and CEO of Turbine, Inc.  "These festivals, coupled with content updates such as the soon-to-be-released Shores of Evendim, demonstrate our commitment to delivering the most value for our subscribers through a fun, compelling and evolving game."

The Summer Solstice Festival is called different things by different races.  Whether it's the Lithe Festival (Hobbits), Summerdays (Men), Summerfest (Dwarves), or the Festival of Enedhin (Elves), they all share the common themes of summer including planting, dancing, drinking, games, and fireworks.  Players can celebrate throughout Middle-earth from June 20th to July 10th by interacting with special vendors and participating in quests designed just for the Summer Solstice Festival, including:

• Dancing: There will be dancing quests with new race-specific dance emotes as a reward.
• Fireworks: Players who collect fireworks from each of the four vendors in the Summer Solstice Festival will receive a unique firework.
• Scavenger Hunts: Players can participate in one of three scavenger hunts that will grant them unique special recipes, seeds and pipeweed.
• Hobnanigans: Join in madcap chicken-chasing games!  There is an arena near the Bree Festival Grounds with two team captains as quest bestowers.  Once twelve players are ready, the "Game Hen" will appear in the center of the arena and players will use a stick to persuade the chicken around the arena.  Each team will have to get the chicken into a goal at the far end of the field three times within a certain time limit."