Great Times at Pokémon GO Fest!

An incredible weekend of Pokémon GO adventures has concluded at the 2018 Pokémon GO Fest in Chicago, Illinois. About 21,000 Trainers filled beautiful Lincoln Park over July 14 and 15, where they could explore a 1.8-mile loop that hosted a variety of different environments and Pokémon. Each event attendee walked an average of around 4 miles, completed an average of 36 research tasks, and caught an average of 350 Pokémon—not bad for one day of Pokémon training!

At least 180,000 Trainers participated in activities in the surrounding Chicago area, completing research tasks and catching rare Pokémon like Beldum and Feebas that briefly appeared throughout the world. Millions of Trainers worldwide helped complete the weekend's Global Challenge, ensuring that July 21 would be Zapdos Day—a chance for Trainers to take on the Legendary Pokémon in Raid Battles once again, and perhaps even to encounter a Shiny Zapdos.

Pokémon GO Fest attendees had the opportunity to catch some extremely tough-to-find Pokémon. Trainers in Chicago undertook Special Research that led to the first showdown with the Mythical Pokémon Celebi, and they even had some unexpected encounters with powerful wild Pokémon like Shiftry and Metagross along the way!

The Fire-type Pokémon Torkoal can normally be found only in a handful of countries in South Asia, including India, but for this weekend it was a common sight in Lincoln Park. Trainers also had the opportunity to add Unown to their collection, with Unown representing C, E, L, B, I, and ? appropriately making appearances.

Trainers were treated to four different habitats at Pokémon GO Fest: desert, tundra, volcano, and jungle. The unique climate of each area attracted different rare Pokémon, including Aerodactyl near the volcano and Slakoth in the jungle region. Many of the species of Pokémon available at GO Fest can be Shiny Pokémon, so many Trainers sought to catch as many Pokémon as possible to accent their collections.

Pokémon GO Fest was a great opportunity to interact with passionate Trainers from all over the world. Each of the team lounges hosted countless trades as players looked to add Pokémon like Corsola and Tropius to their collections. Trainers even competed to win prizes by completing trades that swapped Pokémon caught at locations as far away from one other as possible.

Between the rare Pokémon found in the special Pokémon GO Fest habitats and trades from new friends, many Trainers left Chicago with stories to tell and new entries in their Pokédexes. It looks like these Trainers had a great time. We hope to see you at a future event!