Welcome Back to a brand new Animal Crossing New Horizons, now only a matter of days away from the first holiday event of 2023 which is none other than the Festival, this year Festival falls on February 20th which is of course this coming Monday, and pave stop by the plaza for the third time, since New Horizons launched back in 2020. 

Animal Crossing New Horizons Tips & Tricks -  ACNH Festival Event Changes in 2023 

1. ACNH Festival Event Changes - Mardi Gras celebrations 

First of all, of course, inspired by Mardi Gras celebrations that take place on the last day of Carnival. During the event, collect limited-time feather craft materials and exchange them with pave 4 exclusive Festival-themed ACNH items, the event itself plays out much, the same as previous years are given, it is a reoccurring holiday event.

2. ACNH Festival Event Changes - Halloween or toy day 

However, there are a few changes players May notice this time around compared to previous years, now unlike Halloween or toy day for example the day of the Festival is celebrated on different dates each year, this is because the Festival takes place 40 days before bunny day something pave discusses with us in the roost where he reminds us of festival's connections with lent in 2023 Festival takes place on February 20th which directly affects the event and introduces us to the most notable change you can expect to see compared to previous years, because first of all takes place on February 20th, it's celebrated much earlier than usual and actually falls in the winter season sometimes the Festival falls in the first week of March putting it in Spring, but because it's much earlier this year when pave visits.

3. ACNH Festival Event Changes - Winter instead of spring

Animal Crossing New Horizons Island will still be covered in snow something that didn't occur last year given Festival was celebrated in Spring, once the snow had melted interestingly Festival will now continue to take place in Winter instead of spring for the next two years.

So it's going to be some time until the Festival can be celebrated in Spring again, now in case you were wondering, despite the Festival happening during the winter season this year there's no risk of any snowfall, this is because event days always see fine weather Without Rain or snowfall our Islands will continue to see confetti floating around during the event, though just like it would in Spring which is cool now whilst the day change and the season Festival occurs in affects everyone.

4. ACNH Festival Event Changes - Rainbow feathers

The next change will depend on the last time you play through Festival, if you haven't played since launch or you're new to New Horizons, this next segment will definitely help you, as you know feathers and rainbow feathers are a large part of the Festival event,  feathers can be traded with pave or used to craft rainbow feathers and rainbow feathers can be traded with pave or used to customize Festival theme ACNH items, you've already obtained, but a new feature that was introduced for the first time last year is that Cyrus can now be used to customize Festival items without the need of rainbow feathers this saves valuable time catching feathers, in order to craft rainbow feathers and means you need less feathers all round, but the importance of this change to Festival is that feathers aren't really needed outside of the event anymore this is because previously you may need to hoard feathers to use outside of the event.

In case you wanted to customize Festival animal crossing new horizons items in the future,  fortunately, thanks to Cyrus, there's now no pressure to do this anymore saving space in your storage and time hoarding feathers of course with or without these changes, first of all, remains much the same with Festival event items also available to purchase from nook's cranny in the lead up to the event.

• Chitose Ame 

• Bamboo Shoots

• Potatoes

• Orange Pumpkins

• White Pansies

• Flat Mushrooms

• Boomoid 

• Scatteroid

• Gyroid Fragment 

• Amber

• Timer

• Apple Wall 

• Log Extra-long Sofa

However, it's worth remembering, if you trade enough times with pave, you can earn the festival float which is exclusive to the festival day itself, so it's still worth taking part as always.