The Forza Horizon 6 Festival Playlist is the weekly endgame loop that hands out reward cars, credits, and cosmetics for completing races, PR stunts, championships, and other open-world activities. Series 1, titled Welcome to Japan, runs from May 21 to June 18, 2026, and rotates through four in-game seasons that each last seven real-world days.
How to unlock the Festival Playlist
The Festival Playlist menu stays locked until you finish the Horizon Invitational and earn the Yellow Wristband. That event is the first Wristband milestone in the campaign and usually takes about an hour of normal play after creating your character and clearing the qualifying events around Tokyo City.
Once the Yellow Wristband is in your inventory, the Festival Playlist option appears in the pause menu alongside your World Map and Car Collection. Points earned from any qualifying activity feed both the weekly seasonal targets and the larger series-wide rewards at the same time.
Series 1 schedule and season rollover
A full Series covers four real weeks, matching one complete weather cycle across Summer, Autumn, Winter, and Spring. The season changes every Thursday at 6:30 AM PT / 9:30 AM ET, and the next series begins immediately after the final season ends.
| Season | Window (2026) |
|---|---|
| Summer | May 21 – May 28 |
| Autumn | May 28 – June 4 |
| Winter | June 4 – June 11 |
| Spring | June 11 – June 18 |
| Series-wide | May 21 – June 18 |
Season rollover times in major regions:
| Region | Thursday rollover |
|---|---|
| Pacific Time | 7:30 AM |
| Eastern Time | 10:30 AM |
| Central Europe | 4:30 PM |
| India | 8:00 PM |
| Japan | 11:30 PM |
| Australia (AEST) | 12:30 AM (Friday) |
Series-wide reward cars
Two cars span the entire Welcome to Japan series. Points carry from any season, so you can chase these gradually across the month rather than grinding a single week.
The 2008 Mazda Furai is the headline prize at 60 points. It is a concept car built around a 450-horsepower 20B three-rotor Wankel engine, and the only real-world prototype was destroyed in a fire during a test in 2008. Its name translates to "sound of the wind."
The 2010 Nissan 370Z sits at 120 points, which is roughly a third of the total points available in Series 1. Reaching it requires consistent weekly play across all four seasons rather than a single burst.
Seasonal reward cars
Each season offers two cars: one at 20 points and another at 40 points. Seasonal cars are only available during their specific week, so missing one means waiting for it to cycle back in a later series.
| Season | Car | Points |
|---|---|---|
| Summer | 1999 Toyota Altezza RS200 Z Edition | 20 |
| Summer | 2006 Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IX MR | 40 |
| Autumn | 1997 Nissan Skyline GT-R V-Spec | 20 |
| Autumn | 1991 Honda CR-X SiR | 40 |
| Winter | 2019 Subaru STI S209 | 20 |
| Winter | 2016 Toyota Land Cruiser Arctic Trucks AT37 | 40 |
| Spring | 1996 Toyota Starlet Glanza V | 20 |
| Spring | 1974 Toyota Corolla SR5 | 40 |
| Series | 2008 Mazda Furai | 60 |
| Series | 2010 Nissan 370Z | 120 |
Week 1 Summer events and rewards
The opening week runs through the Summer season along the coastal regions of the Japan map. Point values are weighted toward weekly challenges and championships, with smaller PR Stunt and Photo Challenge contributions filling in the gaps.
| Pts | Event | Name | Restriction | Reward |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4 | Monthly Rivals | Soni Circuit | '08 Mazda Furai | Super Wheelspin |
| 5 | Weekly Challenge | Gazoo Racer | '22 Toyota GR86 | 25,000 CR |
| 5 | Championship – Road | Hot Like Summer | Retro Hot Hatch (C) | '89 Toyota MR2 SC |
| 5 | Championship – Street | Street Fighter | Modern Super Saloons (A) | '22 Pagani Huayra R |
| 5 | Championship – Dirt | Throwback Throwdown | Retro Rally (B) | '21 McLaren Sabre |
| 2 | PR Stunt – Speed Trap | Bamboo Hilltop | Japan (A) | Wheelspin |
| 2 | PR Stunt – Danger Sign | Airfield Takeoff | Japan (A) | Wheelspin |
| 3 | Treasure Hunt | Ohtani Region | — | 100,000 CR |
| 2 | Photo Challenge | — | — | Car Horn: Cat Meow |
| 3 | Horizon | Floor It! | — | '03 Ford F-150 SVT Lightning |
| 2 | Hide & Seek | 5 vs 1 | — | '22 Ferrari 296 GTB |
| 3 | Time Attack | Sekibe Time Attack | Japan (A) | Wheelspin |
How points and rewards stack
Every event you finish in a season contributes points to three meters at once: the weekly seasonal target, the Series 1 total, and your lifetime Playlist Points used for Series History Rewards. Series History Rewards are a permanent track of exclusive cars unlocked by cumulative play across every series going forward.
Completing one of every Festival Playlist activity type during Series 1 also adds a Cherry Blossom Badge to your profile.
Picking the right cars for the events
Most weekly events lock you to a class or group, so a deep garage helps. The Summer week leans on Retro Hot Hatch (C), Modern Super Saloons (A), and Retro Rally (B) for its championships, plus the 2008 Mazda Furai for Monthly Rivals and the 2022 Toyota GR86 for the Weekly Challenge. The GR86 is one of three starter cars handed out after the Horizon Invitational, alongside the 2001 Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution VI GSR TM Edition and the 2024 Ram 1500 TRX.
For PR Stunts and Time Attack at A class, a tuned mid-tier supercar like the Ferrari 488 Pista handles the mixed surfaces well. Dirt championships benefit from rally-ready B-class builds, and the Treasure Hunt in the Ohtani Region rewards exploration rather than a specific class.
Confirming a reward unlocked
When you cross a point threshold, the Festival Playlist screen shows the reward tile turning from locked to claimable. Selecting it adds the car directly to your garage and updates your Collection Journal. Cars unlocked through Series rewards appear in the same way as ones earned from Wristband events, and any duplicates can be sold at the Autoshow for credits.
If a reward is not granted after hitting the listed points, exit and re-enter the Festival Playlist menu. The point count syncs when the menu refreshes, and offline progress will not register until the next online handshake.
Series 2 begins immediately when Spring ends on June 18, 2026, so any seasonal cars from Welcome to Japan will leave the active pool at that point. Plan around the 20- and 40-point thresholds first each week, then chip away at the Furai and 370Z across the full month.