OK, technically, it’s not even summer at all yet, but the Midsummer Festival does arrive to Lord of the Rings Online this week. Today’s 44.3 update prepares the world for the launch of the festival tomorrow, which will see a refreshed event with a new hub in the Shield Isles of Umbar, in addition to the Minas Tirith content from past years.

“New for this year’s Midsummer Festival, you’re invited to visit the far-off tropical island of Furtherholm! Located in the Shield Isles off the coast of Umbar in the Bay of Belfalas, a crew of freebooters have retired from a life at sea to open the island as a retreat for travellers from all parts of Middle-earth. Come enjoy the sun and surf and collect rewards for lending a hand! All previous festivities, locations, and events associated with the Midsummer Festival remain available as well. […] Furtherholm adds a total of 35 quests to the Midsummer Festival including a dozen daily repeatables that count toward the existing Midsummer wrappers.”

The event runs June 19th through July 8th. Players should check the brief non-festival patch notes too, as Standing Stone Games has fixed the busted Special Brew quest, added dye channels to some backpacks, and lightly balanced loot drops and boss powers in several endgame instances.Play LOTRO for free

Worth noting is that as of today, the level cap on the Treebeard progression server has lifted to 130, where it will stay until the server’s closure on August 31st (alongside the sunset of all the other old 32-bit servers). Players are already able to transfer their characters from Treebeard to any of the six core 64-bit servers, for free.