The Festival is a short story about a man who is summoned, by way of ancient tradition, to Kingsport for a mysterious festival in honor of Yuletide. He meets a spooky guy, follows him into an ooky spooky locale, and is takes part in a ritual from the Necronomicon. There is some A+ atmospheric description, but all in all there is a distinct lack of oomph to this plot for me. I think that it was weak and not particularly memorable, especially when compared to some of Lovecraft's more famous works. I think that anybody interested in only reading Lovecraft's best would be justified in passing this story up entirely.