As if having a pinball table and a field museum exhibit wasn’t enough, Chicago was also blessed with a Go Fest for Pokémon’s 30th anniversary. Having attended one in Las Vegas back in 2023, I was fairly certain this would not be a repeat of the disastrous 2017 event, but it remained to be seen how well it would go.
Friday
Like in 2017, I decided it would be better to stay near O’Hare airport and take the Blue Line (which runs 24/7) into the city, as it cuts down on highway travel, and saves on hotel costs. Unlike in 2017, I took a bus instead of driving myself. Other than the bus being quite late (traffic in Madison was a bit heavier than usual, it seemed), the trip went without much of note occurring.
My park time slot was in the afternoon, so after sleeping in a bit and getting breakfast, I put on my “Michael Hutchence as a Pokémon Trainer” costume and hopped on the Blue Line. This trip was rather unpleasant, as the cars were very crowded due to the large number of folks headed to Pokémon Go Fest and a soccer game around this time. CTA really should have been running the maximum number of cars on these trains during this time, if at all possible.
After walking a few blocks (I had forgotten to look up exactly where the entrances to the event were), I entered the park area via Jackson Boulevard, then consulted a map to see where things were in the park. After wandering for a bit, I headed over to the merch pickup spot, only to find that the line was incredibly long. I decided I should come back later, and got started completing objectives in the various areas of the event, and meeting with other fans of the franchise.
In terms of mechanics, I had a great deal of trouble completing the tasks that required spinning stops and gyms, as I still had an excessive number of items from the level switchover. Eventually I had to start throwing away Max Potions so I could finally finish those tasks.
When the time came to battle Mega Mewtwo, I was instructed to head to the North area of the event. This was a bit confusing in the UI since the relevant gyms appeared on the map, then disappeared, but I managed to get to the right place (conveniently near a Team Mystic assembly area), and participate in both the X and Y versions of the event. I did have some visual oddities where the battle (especially the first with over one thousand participants) didn’t really animate on my phone screen, leading me to be confused as to whether things were working.
After the event shut down at 6 pm, I exited the park and used the Blue Line to returned to my hotel, a trip that was considerably less crowded. I took this opportunity to talk to other attendees and get their thoughts. They seem to have been relatively pleased with how the event had gone, much like myself.
I had added on Sunday as a city-wide day, but ended staying on the west side of the city, with the intention of visiting several used video game stores. The first one I visited was “Game Over”, a small, tightly packed store on Fullerton Avenue. I ended up purchasing a copy of Hybrid Heaven for the N64 and Lethal Enforcers for the Super Nintendo.
The second location I visited was “Videogames Then & Now”, a larger location technically located in the suburb of Harwood Heights. This was a larger shop with a wider selection, including a number of pre-NES titles, books, and more. After acquiring Jet Force Gemini and a GameCube controller extension cable, I got a small bite to eat at the nearby gyro restaurant.
During the course of the day, I obviously made sure to complete more tasks in Go. In addition to getting my first Mudbray and Cursola, I took part in some Gigantamax Raids while I was waiting for or riding on buses. Since a third store (which I had thought would be open) was closed until Tuesday, I took that as a sign it was time to head out, and I went back to the hotel, then to the O’Hare multi-modal facility, and got on a bus back to Madison.
Conclusion
I had a great time at this year’s Go Fest event, certainly better than the disaster that was in 2017, and much more in line with my experience in Vegas in 2023. I very much recommend taking advantage of one of these events should there be an opportunity in your area.
Other Notes
-Towards the end of the park event, I found myself next to a young woman in a wheelchair. I asked her if she had encountered any issues, and she told me she was unable to enter the Team Go Rocket area due to the topography and a lack of walkways. Since I couldn’t remember, I asked her if the sign-up had any place where you could note the need for disabilities or accommodations, and according to her it does not. I think this is something that should be asked during sign up, even if it’s only used for statistical purposes.
-This is another “I would have understood if I looked closer” thing, but it was confusing to me that both the park and the city were divided into zones with different objectives and whatnot. When I saw the name “Investigation Zone”, I assumed that referred to the Team Go Rocket area of the park, and only on closer inspection did I finally figure things out.
-This was my first time wearing my Michael Hutchence cosplay outside for an extended period. Surprisingly, I was even able to wear the fake leather jacket most of the time-as long as I stayed in the shade-but it did feel good to remove the jacket and wig after the park event. As usual, it was fun to get people to try and guess who I was dressed up as.
-My best meal of the weekend came from Nonna Silvia’s, an Italian restaurant where I ordered this gnocchi dish:
