Pokemon Go Will Bring Back Pokemon Go Fest This Summer

Pokemon Go is hoping for a more successful Pokemon Go Fest in 2018.

The popular mobile game announced that their Pokemon Go Fest live event will return to Chicago on July 14-15 as part of a new
“Pokemon Go Summer Tour 2018”. This year’s event will take place at Lincoln Park and will include a nearly 2 mile walking course with different “exclusive” activities for trainers. Other parts of Chicago will also see additional in-game activities and the appearance of rare Pokemon.

As with last year’s event, players who can’t go to Pokemon Go Fest will still have the opportunity to “engage in a variety of activities and challenges,” which probably means in-game bonuses and increased spawns around the world as with last year’s event.

Pokemon Go launched their first Pokemon Go Fest in 2017, which was seen as an unmitigated disaster due to poor cell service, long lines, and other technical difficulties. Sadly, Pokemon Go live-streamed the entire event, so players around the world got to watch thousands of fans look miserable in the hot summer sun as they couldn’t get the game to work. While the event was supposed to mark the launch of Legendary Raids, players who attended the event ended up getting refunds for their tickets and accommodations, plus a free Lugia, and $100 in PokeCoins.

In a press release announcing the event, Niantic CEO John Hanke acknowledged last year’s shortcomings while pointing to a number of other successful events. “After getting off to a bumpy start in Chicago last year, we hosted a number of record-setting events in Japan, Korea, and cities across Europe with attendance that ranged from tens of thousands to more than two million.”

Single day tickets for Pokemon Go Fest will go on sale on May 11th and will cost $20.

Niantic seems to have learned from some of the mistakes of last year, though. This year’s Pokemon Go Fest will take place over two days and seems to be more spread out to minimize the cell network overloads that plagued last year’s event.

Pokemon Go also announced events for Germany and Japan. Pokemon Go officially announced a new Safari ZOne event in Dortmund, Germany. While the event will be hosted in Westfalenpark, activities connected to the event will be spread throughout Dortmund’s entire city district.

Pokemon Go will also host a Safari Zone event in Yokosuka, Japan at an unspecified time later this summer. Notably, Pokemon Go was not invited to attend this year’s annual Pikachu Outbreak Festival in Yokohama, so this event appears to be a replacement of sorts. Other events will also be announced for Asian fans later this summer.