ABC7 Chicago is now streaming 24\/7. Click here to watch<\/a><\/p>\nAnd what a day to be outside with temperatures reaching nearly 80 degrees.<\/p>\n
“You just got to love having a good time, hanging out with people, just enjoying, got to catch them all,” said John Kamichitis, who is visiting from Sterling Heights, Michigan.<\/p>\n
Thousands traveled near and far in hopes to “catch them all” this weekend at the Pok\u00e9mon GO Fest in Chicago, marking 10 years since the app’s release.<\/p>\n
“So, it is a good way for people to just get outside and enjoy the fresh air,” said Humboldt Park resident Cory Lara. “It’s in Chicago. I mean, this is the only place in America where they are doing it for this season. So, you can’t pass it up. It’s a rare opportunity.”<\/p>\n
The festival, which goes through Sunday, returned to the city for the first time since 2019.<\/p>\n
“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?” said Pok\u00e9mon GO Global Live Events Manager Divya Erram.<\/p>\n
And, in the midst of the gameplay, there is community.<\/p>\n
“And you just click on Pok\u00e9mon here, and you just catch them,” Knox said. “Seeing friends that you haven’t seen in years, and developers you haven’t seen in years, and enjoying Chicago.”<\/p>\n
Copyright \u00a9 2026 WLS-TV. All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CHICAGO (WLS) — An anime phenomenon turned Grant Park into a digital playground on Saturday. “I play all…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":850130,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5124],"tags":[347416,960,205913,347407,347411,5462,347410,347412,31468,73385,5386,1818,925,347406,347414,926,347413,347409,347415,347408],"class_list":["post-850129","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-chicago","tag-347416","tag-chicago","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-il","tag-illinois","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"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116707362559179449","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/850129","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=850129"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/850129\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/850130"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=850129"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=850129"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=850129"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}