ArenaNet has announced that Festival of the Four Winds, Guild Wars 2’s summer event, returns on August 11. The studio confirmed the date in a social media post, telling players to "Return to Labyrinthine Cliffs, test your mettle in the Crown Pavilion, and celebrate summer in Tyria."
The festival has historically sent players to Divinity’s Reach and the Labyrinthine Cliffs to work with the Zephyrites, take on the Queen’s Gauntlet, hunt crystals across the cliffs and run boss blitz encounters for loot. ArenaNet has not detailed exactly what changes this year, but its announcement promises "new rewards & more," which in past years has typically meant a set of new achievements alongside the returning content.
A festival with a gap in its history
Festival of the Four Winds first ran in 2014 and then went dormant for four years. ArenaNet revived it in 2018, at a point when the Zephyrite content was the closest thing the game had to a look at Cantha — a region that would not properly arrive until the End of Dragons expansion. This year’s outing is the ninth consecutive run since that revival.
The recurring structure is part of the appeal for returning players. Labyrinthine Cliffs is built around movement and crystal collection rather than combat, while the Crown Pavilion and Queen’s Gauntlet supply the fight content, and the boss blitz gives players a repeatable loot loop for the duration of the festival.
The event lands during a period when much of the Guild Wars 2 community’s attention has been on the game’s housing systems, and gives players who are not invested in that content a separate reason to log in. ArenaNet made the announcement through the game’s social channels the night before, and has not said how long the festival will run this year.
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