Pokemon Go has announced live celebrations in 21 cities around the world as part of its Pokemon Go Fest event. Niantic announced that it would be hosting outdoor, socially distanced “experiences” for Pokemon Go‘s upcoming Pokemon Go Fest. Ten of these events will take place in the United States, four events will take place in the UK, three will take place in Germany, and the remaining events will take place in Austria, Spain, France, Poland, and Australia. These events are free to attend but require registration through Niantic’s website. No specifics were given other than that they involve photo ops of some kind and will run on Saturday from 10 AM to 6 PM local time.
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The full list of cities in the United States include San Francisco, Denver, Atlanta, Chicago, Indianapolis, New York City, Nashville, Austin, Seattle, and Washington DC. Also include are events in Linz, Dresden, Essen, Hamburg, Sevilla, Paris, Warsaw, Bristol, Edinburgh, Liverpool, London, and Auckland New Zealand.
Pokemon Go players do not have to attend one of these 20 live celebrations in order to participate in Pokemon Go Fest, a two day event that features rare Pokemon, Legendary Pokemon raids, and more. In fact, given that the COVID-19 pandemic is still ongoing with a new and more infectious variant now making its way around the world, it might be safer if players planned not to attend. Several countries due to host an event still have less than 40% of their total populations fully vaccinated, although outdoor events are generally considered to be safer to attend than indoor events.
The announcements have already drawn some criticism from Pokemon Go players who believe that the game is rolling back to pre-pandemic form too quickly. The game has already announced plans to drop several bonuses designed to encourage social distancing over the next few months, although it has announced new bonuses designed to offset this.
You can check out the full list of cities on Pokemon Go’s website and register for an event here. Please note that an in-game Pokemon Go Fest event is not enough to grant admission to the celebrations – you must register in advance to attend.
