{"id":721397,"date":"2026-06-07T17:03:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-07T17:03:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/721397\/"},"modified":"2026-06-07T17:03:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-07T17:03:09","slug":"chicago-pokemon-go-fest-2026-draws-thousands-to-grant-park-and-other-city-attractions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/721397\/","title":{"rendered":"Chicago Pokemon GO fest 2026 draws thousands to Grant Park and other city attractions"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao MvWXB TjIXL aGjvy ebVHC \">CHICAGO (WLS) &#8212; An anime phenomenon turned Grant Park into a digital playground on Saturday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">&#8220;I play all the Pok\u00e9mon games. I&#8217;ve been playing it since I was a kid,&#8221; said Celia Knox, who is visiting from Kalamazoo, Michigan. &#8220;It keeps you active and it keeps you outside.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/abc7chicago.com\/watch\/live\/11064984\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">ABC7 Chicago is now streaming 24\/7. Click here to watch<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">And what a day to be outside with temperatures reaching nearly 80 degrees.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">&#8220;You just got to love having a good time, hanging out with people, just enjoying, got to catch them all,&#8221; said John Kamichitis, who is visiting from Sterling Heights, Michigan.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Thousands traveled near and far in hopes to &#8220;catch them all&#8221; this weekend at the Pok\u00e9mon GO Fest in Chicago, marking 10 years since the app&#8217;s release.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">&#8220;So, it is a good way for people to just get outside and enjoy the fresh air,&#8221; said Humboldt Park resident Cory Lara. &#8220;It&#8217;s in Chicago. I mean, this is the only place in America where they are doing it for this season. So, you can&#8217;t pass it up. It&#8217;s a rare opportunity.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">The festival, which goes through Sunday, returned to the city for the first time since 2019.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">&#8220;It was where the first three GO fests in the U.S. were based. And, we just thought for the tenth anniversary, why not return home?&#8221; said Pok\u00e9mon GO Global Live Events Manager Divya Erram.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">And, in the midst of the gameplay, there is community.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC eTIW sUzSN \">&#8220;And you just click on Pok\u00e9mon here, and you just catch them,&#8221; Knox said. &#8220;Seeing friends that you haven&#8217;t seen in years, and developers you haven&#8217;t seen in years, and enjoying Chicago.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Copyright \u00a9 2026 WLS-TV. All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CHICAGO (WLS) &#8212; An anime phenomenon turned Grant Park into a digital playground on Saturday. &#8220;I play all&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":721398,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[349610,64,63,349601,349602,349606,227934,349605,349607,349599,349600,346,349598,349609,6148,349608,349604,244057,349603,105,238,239,240],"class_list":["post-721397","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-virtual-reality","tag-349610","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-chicago-events","tag-chicago-events-today","tag-chicago-go-fest","tag-chicago-news","tag-chicago-pokemon-go","tag-chicago-pokemon-go-fest","tag-grant-park","tag-grant-park-chicago","tag-pokemon","tag-pokemon-chicago","tag-pokemon-fest-chicago","tag-pokemon-go","tag-pokemon-go-chicago-go-fest","tag-pokemon-go-fest","tag-pokemon-go-fest-2026","tag-pokemon-go-festival-chicago","tag-technology","tag-virtual-reality","tag-virtualreality","tag-vr"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/721397","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=721397"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/721397\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/721398"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=721397"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=721397"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=721397"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}