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How to Start the Stardew Valley Desert Festival

Stardew Valley has a more hidden festival some players may miss for a while until they unlock it. That is the Stardew Valley Desert Festival, which requires players to be able to visit the Desert area. Here’s what you need to know about how unlock this festival and how to win there.

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Desert Festival Dates and How to Start in Stardew Valley

The Desert Festival happens over the course of three days every year from Spring 15-17. Of course, there is a catch in that the player must be able to visit the Desert in the first place to enjoy the Desert Festival. To do this, you need to repair the bus in Pelican Town so you are able to take it to the Desert region.

As you know, the bus is broken down at the start of the game. To repair it, you have two options. The first is to buy all of the Vault Bundles, which will cost you 42,500g in total. The alternative option is to simply buy the Bus Repair for 40,000g using the Joja Community Development Form. I prefer the former method since you get some other goodies at the same time.

How to Start the Stardew Valley Desert Festival And get Calico Eggs
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How to Win Races and Earn Calico Eggs in Stardew Valley

Once the bus is repaired and you can visit the Desert, you can enjoy the Desert Festival and collect some Calico Eggs in Stardew Valley. Calico Eggs are the special event currency for the Desert Festival. You can get these through a couple of ways, including Skull Cavern quests that guarantee Calico Eggs for reaching certain levels and slaying monsters.

The other way to get Calico Eggs, which is my favorite, is to bet on the races. There are five contestants you can bet on, with three active participants per day from the selection of the Speed Rooster, King Sting, Shoebiscuit, Cactus Crawler, and Escar-go. You get 20 Calico Eggs for each correct bet you make.

However, you can rig the races a bit by paying one Calico Egg to the Suspicious Guy near the Oasis to have a high chance of one of the competitors to lose the race. You can do numerous races from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. on Desert Festival days. In addition, once per day, if you guess Escar-go right, you get 100 Calico Eggs.

Stardew Valley is available right now for Android, iOS, Nintendo Switch, PS4, Xbox One, and PC.


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Author
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Cody Perez
Cody is a writer who has been sharing his love for video games and anime since his high school days in 2012. When he isn’t writing about the latest JRPGs and anime series, he can be found in Final Fantasy XIV, occasionally playing some Call of Duty, or lurking on Twitter @SoulcapCody.