Pokemon Go fans join giant Pikachus at Yokohama festival

World
Europe

Thousands of Pokemon Go players gathered in the Japanese port city of Yokohama to try their hand at catching rare virtual creatures while watching dance shows featuring people dressed as giant Pikachus.

Pokemon Go is a smartphone-based game, which requires players to 'catch' virtual creatures, one of the best-known of which is the mouse-like Pikachu, by going to real-world locations where the game places them.

Performers in Pikachu costumes dance at a Splash show and Pokemon Go Park event in Yokohama, Japan on August 9, 2017. /Reuters Photo

The festival, which is jointly organized by Yokohama City and The Pokemon Company, features a total of 15,000 Pikachus and will end on Aug. 15, the event organizers said.

More such events will be held in Japan in the lead up to the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, they added.

Attendants react to water spray at a Splash show and Pokemon Go Park event in Yokohama, Japan on August 9, 2017. /Reuters Photo

At the Pokemon Go Park, the festival's main venue, visitors on Wednesday stopped by hoping to defeat players of the augmented reality game from Japan and beyond.

One player, 15-year-old Geoffrey Morris, said the area was so busy the servers were often down.

Performers in Pikachu costumes dance at a Splash show and Pokemon Go Park event in Yokohama, Japan on August 9, 2017. /Reuters Photo

Last month, nearly 20,000 people gathered at the first-ever Pokemon Go Fest in Chicago. However, it ended in chaos as registered attendants who had queued for hours for the chance to catch Legendary Pokemon Lugia found the game almost unplayable due to overloaded mobile phone networks.

The game's developer Niantic apologized after the event and later offered a full refund on the ticket, also with in-game Pokecoins as well as a Lugia to all attendants. But the event still casts a shadow, leading Niantic to later postpone a number of events in Europe.

Women play Pokemon Go at a Pokemon Go Park event in Yokohama, Japan on August 9, 2017. /Reuters Photo

The game became a global sensation upon its release in 2016, breaking records for mobile app downloads and revenue. The game's developers say that it has been downloaded 650 million times worldwide since its release.

2101km

Source(s): Reuters