If you’re new to Stardew Valley, you must have gone to your first Flower Dance in Spring. Next comes Summer, and with it, the Luau Festival! Each season, Pelican Town villagers celebrate 1–2 festivals to mark the end of the season, or some special Annual event. If you’re a new player, it’ll be your second festival in Stardew Valley. Hence, you want to make sure you get everything right and don’t miss out on the chance to enjoy yourself to the most.
Because, trust me – that can happen! For example, I turned up to the Flower Dance, not having two hearts with any single character, and didn’t get a chance to dance. Anyway, Luau Festival is also the first festival of Summer, and the second festival of a new year.
What is the Luau Festival?
The Luau Festival is an annual potluck-style soup-making ceremony where the governor visits Pelican Town. The festival takes place on the Beach on the 11th of Summer, between 9AM – 2PM.
You’ll receive an invitation in your mail from Mayor Lewis a day before the Luau Festival on the 10th of Summer, Wednesday. He’ll tell you about the common potluck, and ask you to bring something for the soup.
When the event starts, you’ll get a notification that says: The Luau Festival has started on the beach.
What to Do at the Luau Festival?
Once you reach the beach in Stardew Valley, you’ll see the Governor and Mayor Lewis standing at the start. Avoid speaking to them just when you have come in.
If you want to interact with all the villagers and win friendship points, go around speaking to everyone. A simple right-click will open the dialogue box.
There’s also a shop at all festivals in Stardew Valley. This one is selling some unique items (more on that later). Visit the shop, take a look at the inventory, and buy whatever you want (or, don’t).
You can also speak to Marnie, who’s stirring the soup. She’ll ask you to add your items. You can climb on the stairs, and add 1 item to the Luau Festival soup.
Once done, go to Mayor Lewis. He’ll ask you to add items. You can just tell him that you have already added your items. Next, he’ll ask whether you’re ready to start the Luau Festival. You’ll be given two in-game options:
- Yes, let’s start the Luau Festival
- No, not yet
If you’re not ready, or if you have to take a stop break from the game, select No and start it at your convenience. As you know, time stops when you’re in a festival cutscene.
When you’re ready to start the festival, select: Yes, let’s start the Luau Festival. The governor will come taste the soup and give his verdict depending upon the type of item you have added.
You don’t have the option to change the item, or go add a different one.
All Game Outcomes at the Luau Festival in Stardew Valley
You can have six possible responses from the Governor on this.
- Best response where it’s the best soup he has ever tasted
- Good response where the valley never disappoints
- Neutral response where the soup’s average
- Bad response where it’s disgusting
- Worst response where he has to lie down and he passes out
- Missing out on something response, in case you didn’t add anything
Note: There’s also a secret response, in case you do something scandalous (check the section on Mayor Lewis’s shorts below)
➡️ Why are the Governor’s Responses Important?
The response you receive determines your friendship with villagers, and whether you earn or lose points. Getting the best response will get you 120 friendship points with the villagers, whereas the good response means 60 friendship points.
For a neutral response or a missing something response, there’s no loss of points.
For a bad response, you lose out on 50 friendship points, and for the worst response, you lose out on 100 friendship points.
Now, let’s take a look at the items you should add to the soup potluck.
What Items Should You Add to the Soup Potluck?
As you go to the beach, remember to take an edible food item: a fruit, a vegetable, or a fish. If you have star-marked food items, I recommend you take that instead of normal-grade fruits or vegetables.
Don’t take cooked items, as they aren’t considered eligible for the soup.
Note: You can only add a single item to the soup.
My first time at the Luau Festival in Stardew Valley, I carried several times as the game doesn’t specify how many items you can contribute to the soup. I learned later that you can only contribute once, and the soup’s quality is based on your item’s quality. Hence, add the highest quality produce you have to get a winning chance.
It is only when you have added the item to the soup that Mayor Lewis tells you: I trust that you all put high-quality ingredients in the pot this year. We don’t want the governor to regret his visit to the valley!
Items to Add to the Luau Festival Soup for the Best Response
Adding high-quality items to the common potluck will help you earn 120 friendship points with all villagers. Here are the items you should target:
| Gold/Iridium | Silver | |
| Vegetables | Red cabbage, artichoke, cauliflower, fairyrose, yam | |
| Milk | Goat milk or large goat milk or large milk | Large goat milk |
| Fruits | Pineapple, melon | Starfruit |
| Eggs | Golden egg or ostrich egg | Golden egg or ostrich egg |
| Wines | Ancient fruit wine, apple wine, banana wine, coconut wine, crystal fruit wine, mango wine, melon wine, orange wine, peach wine, pineapple wine, pomegranate wine, rhubarb wine, starfruit wine, strawberry wine, or wine bought from the Travelling Cart | Ancient fruit wine, apple wine, banana wine, coconut wine, crystal fruit wine, mango wine, melon wine, orange wine, peach wine, pineapple wine, pomegranate wine, rhubarb wine, starfruit wine, strawberry wine, or wine bought from the Travelling Cart |
| Fishes | angler, blobfish, crimson fish, catfish, glacierfish, glacierfish jr., ice pip, lava eel, ms angler, mutant carp, magma carp, legend I, legend II, radioactive carp, son of crimsonfish, spookfish, sturgeon, stingray | Blobfish, crimson fish, ice pip, lava eel, magma carp, legend I, legend II, son of crimsonfish |
| Artisan goods | Beer, pale ale, mead | Pale ale |
| Cheese | Cheese, goat cheese | Goat cheese |
| Mushrooms | Purple mushroom or chanterelle or truffle |
You’ll need a keg to prepare any of the wines, or the pale or mead. As for cheese, you’ll need the cooking recipe unlocked once you have started collecting milk from your cows or goats. Mushrooms can be grown in your cave when Demetrius approaches you with an offer.
You can buy wine from Travelling Cart, and you can buy beer from the Salon, owned by Gus. While Gus’s salon is open between 12PM – 11PM on all days, the Travelling Cart is available only on Fridays and Sundays between 6AM – 9PM, south of your farm.
Items to Avoid Adding to the Luau Festival Soup in Stardew Valley
Now, there are definitely certain items that can get you the worst response from the Governor. Here they are:
- Holly
- Pufferfish
- Red mushroom
- Sap
- Scorpion cap
- Sea cucumber
- Void mayonnaise
In this case, you’ll lose 100 friendship points with all the villagers. That’ll be quite a setback, isn’t it?
Note: Not adding any items will get you a neutral response, and not make you lose any friendship points with the villagers.
While we’re on the talk about this, let’s also mention the items you’re supposed to avoid adding to get a bad response:
- Anchovy
- Blackberry
- Carp
- Crocus
- Daffodil
- Field snack
- Green algae
- Herring
- Joja cola
- Qi fruit
- Qi fruit wine
- Salmonberry
- Seaweed
- Spring onion
- Sunfish
- Sweet pea
- Unmilled rice
- White algae
In case of a bad response from the governor, you’ll lose 50 points with the villagers, which is still a setback.
There are certain items that’ll also give you a neutral response. Items like Albacore, Garlic, Ghostfish, Wild Plum, and others. In this case, you won’t lose any friendship points with the villagers.
What Items Can You Buy at the Luau Festival Shop?
Once you visit the Luau Festival, don’t forget to go visit Pierre’s shop. You can buy a starfruit in exchange for 3000 gold coins. If you don’t have something remarkable to contribute, you can also contribute it to the soup.
You can also buy the following decoration items between 400g – 1000g.
- Wall palm
- Jungle decal
- Ceiling leaves
- Totem pole
- Plain torch
Please visit the shop and purchase items before you speak to Lewis about starting the festival.
That’s because after the festival, you’ll directly go to your doorstep and won’t have a chance to look around or interact.
Add Mayor Lewis’s Purple Shorts to the Soup for a Unique Response
There’s a whole list of eligible and ineligible items that can be added to the Luau Festival soup potluck ceremony. Like, you can’t add any cooked item like fried egg, autumn’s bounty, or piña colada, or life elixir.
Remember the quest where you were asked by Lewis to find his shorts in Stardew Valley? As you might already know, the shorts were in Marnie’s bedroom. You can get your hands on the shorts only when you reach 2 heart points with Marnie, and can enter her bedroom.
You can pick up the shorts, return them to Mayor Lewis discreetly, and get your reward. However, you can also play it different and add Mayor Lewis’s shorts to the common annual potluck soup.
The Governor and Mayor Lewis will have a unique response to the situation. It won’t affect your friendship points with all other villagers, but will definitely have Mayor Lewis outraged. He could have played dumb and pretended not to know whose shorts they were, but he’ll let the town know they were his. Quite a rebellious move!
➡️ What Else Can You Do With the Mayor’s Purple Shorts?
You can do several things instead of just returning the purple shorts to Mayor Lewis. You can pull another prank on Mayor Lewis and put the purple shorts on your display at the grange display in the Fall.
While that’ll have you disqualified from the display, you can have some fun and receive star tokens from Mayor Lewis as a bribe.
You can also gift the purple shorts to Mayor Lewis on the Ginger Islands. That’ll prompt him to wear them on the beach for 28 days straight. What’s the fun in there? The unique set of dialogues it’ll bring up in the tropical paradise of Stardew Valley. Get ready for some lighthearted banter with all the other villagers, as everyone wants to know the story of Lewis’s purple shorts.
➡️ When Does the Luau Festival End?
The Luau Festival ends at 9PM, or whenever the mayor’s done tasting the soup and giving his verdict. It’ll prompt the end of the game and the player will be transported to their doorstep at 10PM.
If you’re wondering, no player has to manually make it back from the festival, which happens to be the case for some festivals happening on the beach. Moreover, as the festival prompts a sudden end, we recommend you interact with players or buy special items at sale from Pierre’s Shop at the Luau Festival before speaking to the mayor and starting the festival.
Try Out Multiple Ingredients for Varied Responses
While it’s true that you can add a single item to the annual potluck soup at the Luau Festival of Stardew valley, you have the choice to add multiple items every year. And, also elicit different responses every time!
It’s very hard to win the Luau Festival (or get the best response) from the governor in Year 1, as you might not have your hands on gold-quality or iridium-quality items. It’s absolutely all right to get a neutral response in your first year. Just try to avoid adding items that can get you the bad or worst response, which will result in a friendship loss with the villagers.
You can come back and win the Luau Festival potluck ceremony in Year 2, and get the friendship points you so desperately need. By Year 3, you should have enough friendship points with the villagers, so you can be a bit more courageous! You can add Mayor Lewis’s shorts to the soup and angry Lewis, but that’ll only happen if you have not solved the quest or if you still have his shorts in your possession.
Or, you can simply keep winning year after year because there’s nothing like being #number1!
Next, check out how you can upgrade your tools in Stardew Valley to receive better in-game items!
