Last year, Niantic and The Pokémon Company hosted its Pokémon GO Fest in Chicago, Illinois, while launching Safari Zone events in two additional cities internationally. This year will be different, as the Pokémon GO Fest 2019 is an international affair through and through.

This week, Niantic and The Pokémon Company officially announced that the 2019 Pokémon GO Fest will take place in three international cities over the course of the summer, rather than just one in the United States and smaller events in other cities. Things will kick off in Chicago, Illinois, again, with the event starting on Thursday, June 13 and run until Sunday, June 16. It will once again be hosted in Chicago’s Grant Park, the site of the very first Pokémon GO Fest.

At the park, there will be physical installations to check out, plenty of merchandise, and “Team Lounges” where players in the Valor, Mystic, and Instinct teams can get food and refreshments together. There will be unique photo opportunities with the digital pocket monsters around the park as well, and new Special Research efforts so players can team up and “unlock exciting rewards”.

Niantic is changing the way they sell tickets to the event this year. The developer says it will be selling tickets directly through the Pokémon GO mobile app, and that will go live later this month.

Beginning Thursday, July 4, and running until Sunday, July 7, Pokémon GO Fest will be hosted in Dortmund, Germany. It will be hosted in the Westfalenpark. Niantic chose this same site last year with its Safari Zone, but this year’s event should be a much bigger deal — especially considering it runs for four days. It will have the same kind of events that the Chicago fest will have. Tickets go on sale “later this spring”, but no exact date is known at this time.

There is a third event, which take place at an unknown time and unknown location somewhere in Asia. However, considering we’re seeing Niantic use the previous event sites from last year for this year’s Pokémon GO Fest, it’s possible the third location is Yokosuka, Japan. It’s also possible the developer and The Pokémon Company are still locking down a venue, so that may not be the case.

As is par for the course, Niantic says that folks who can’t attend any of the events will still be able to take advantage of special events in the game while Pokémon GO Fest is taking place.

Our Take

Pokémon GO is still a fun game. And Niantic continues to add new features, including a new photography mode and player-versus-player battles, to mix things up. These fan events are still incredibly popular, too. It’s good to see the game still has a healthy player base, even if the initial hysteria has certainly died down.

We Want To Hear From You

Have you ever attended one of these events? If not, and you live near where one of the events will take place this year, do you plan on going?

[via Niantic]