From the EQ2 Forums:

It has been many years since the moon Luclin mysteriously exploded, sending debris crashing to Norrath. The catastrophic damage split the surface of the planet into the divided islands now known as the “Shattered Lands.” Despite the near-destruction of their homelands, the survivors of the Shattering and their descendants went on to accomplish great deeds, and all Norrathians celebrate their triumph at the annual Heroes’ Festival.

New for 2013: Earn Tokens of Heroism as you participate in the festivities and trade them for brand new rewards. Complete all the quests to get the “Badge of Heroics” achievement!

From Kaitheel on the EQ2 Forums:

In light of a moratorium on live server updates, the holiday live event schedule had to be rearranged slightly. Here’s the current plan:

Heroes’ Festival
to be activated on live servers on 11/27/12 (Tuesday) *after game update on 11/26/12 (Monday)
to be deactivated on all servers on 12/11/12 (Tuesday) @ 11:59pm

Frostfell
to be activated on test server on 12/10/12 (Monday)
to be activated on live servers with a server update on 12/13/12 (Thursday)
to be deactivated on all servers with a server update on 1/10/13 (Thursday)

Introduced in 2009, the Heroes Festival is a celebration of EverQuest II’s anniversary. From EQ2 ZAM:

The Heroes’ Festival, an annual live event first introduced in 2009, will make its return on Friday, November 18th. Freeport and Qeynos will be filled with festivities to celebrate the 7th anniversary of EverQuest II.

Heroes’ Festival 2011 will run from 12:01am PST on November 18, 2011 through 11:59pm PST on November 28, 2011.

No new quests have been introduced for 2011.

Time Zone Conversion:

• PST: November 18 @ 12:01am – November 28 @ 11:59pm
• EST: November 18 @ 3:01am – November 29 @ 2:59am
• GMT: November 18 @ 8:01 – November 29 @ 7:59
• CET: November 18 @ 9:01 – November 29 @ 8:59

The Heroes’ Festival is SOE’s celebration of the anniversary of EverQuest II. This will mark the 6th year since EverQuest II premiered. There are a series of repeatable and nonrepeatable quests which reward various house items as well as a collection. Absent this year are the player-made paintings introduced during last year’s brief event.

EQ2 ZAM has updated information on the quests and events going on in this year’s Heroes Festival.

Posted on the EQ2 Forums by Kaitheel:

The Heroes’ Festival has begun! A call has gone out to all Norrathian adventurers to commemorate the six years of questing, raiding, tradeskilling, house decorating and socializing. Celebrators, happy to share in the festivities, can be found in North and South Qeynos or West and North Freeport.

You may spot some odd things, due to the overlap of both the Nights of the Dead and Heros’ Festival running at the same time, right now. But keep in mind that this will not be the case when it goes live. Currently, the event is scheduled to run on live servers, 11/19/10 through 11/30/10.

If you have any feedback or bugs, please post it in this thread so that we will be sure to see it. Thank you!

No word yet on whether the player-submitted paintings (which were available last year for just 6 days) will be available again this year.

From EQ2 Forums:

The Heroes’ Festival has begun!  A call has gone out to all Norrathian adventurers to commemorate the five years that have passed since the Refuge Islands first began collecting those lost in the turbulent oceans.  Celebrators, happy to share in the festivities, can be found in North and South Qeynos or West and South Freeport.

Quest starters are in North and South Qeynos, as well as West and NORTH Freeport.

• EQ2 ZAM Wiki page with Heroes’ Festival info
• EQ2 Forums discussion on Heroes’ Festival
• Post on Facebook

Note: This is the EQII 5th Anniversary event, which went live on November 24, 2009 and is expected to end on November 30, 2009.

Note: Currently these 5 year anniversary events require The Shadow Odyssey expansion. This was unintentional and a hotfix will correct the issue.

It seems very odd to the EQ2Wire that an event which will only last 7 days has a reward that will never be available again and there is no announcement on EQ2Players.