At the weekend, the big GO Fest took place in Berlin in Pokémon GO. Our MeinMMO author Franzi Korittke was there and is enthusiastic about the event. In this article, she explains what she particularly liked and what her highlight of the event was.
What kind of event is it? After the global GO Fest in Pokémon took place in June, in which all trainers could participate from anywhere, a live event returned to Germany with the GO Fest in Berlin for a long time.
Numerous trainers gathered in the Britzer Garden in Berlin on the weekend of July 1st to 3rd. With an event ticket you got access to the park and could not only encounter countless spawns and get cool bonuses, but also became part of a special community experience.
Of course, I didn’t miss the live event on Saturday either and I’m really excited about this experience. What I liked so much and why I would take part again immediately, I will explain to you below.
Cool outfits and unique atmosphere
For me, the GO Fest in Berlin was the first major live event in Pokémon GO that I attended. Due to the contact restrictions in the last two years, this type of event could only be held sporadically and on a smaller scale.
I was all the happier that a Pokémon GO live event could finally take place in Germany again in 2022, so I went to Berlin with my husband for the weekend.
International and disguised trainers: As soon as I got in, I was overwhelmed by how many people, especially from abroad, came to the Britzer Garten to take part in this event. I hadn’t thought it possible that there are so many trainers who are willing to travel such a long distance just to be part of the GO Fest in Berlin.
The trainers, who had dressed up for the event, provided additional eye-catchers. Two of them were the trainers Kerubia and Rakurim, disguised as Aquana and Blitza. I immediately noticed them because of the costumes and I struck up a conversation with them.
As Kerubia told me, they get a lot of positive feedback on the costumes, many players are happy about that, which is why they like to dress accordingly for such events. And I really liked the outfit too.
Special atmosphere and mood
I was all the more enthusiastic about the unique atmosphere of the event. Despite the many people and one or two language barriers, all the trainers I met and talked to were totally open-minded. Although you didn’t know each other at all, you had the impression of talking to old acquaintances.
The mood in the community is positive: Due to this great atmosphere on site, I had the feeling of being carried away by this positive energy. Not just for a moment, but throughout the day, over and over again. For example, countless trainers suddenly streamed past us and all ran in one direction.
The reason for this migration was a 100 Relaxo with a cowboy hat, which was discovered at the other end of the park. And although my husband and I didn’t really want to stress about catching that day, we almost automatically joined this crowd of people, hoping to reach the Relaxo in time before it disappeared again.
Even if it didn’t work out in our case and the Relaxo was gone again, we still had a lot of fun.
Habitats and eye-catchers: From my point of view, Niantic added a special icing on the cake by preparing the various habitats accordingly. So you could recognize the habitat “windy coast” directly from the constructed lighthouse.
And other loving details and special features, such as the encounter with Pikachu, rounded off the event and gave me the feeling of being part of the game.
5-person raid with group photo: Another example of this unique atmosphere was also evident towards the end of the event. At the culmination of the second day of the event, there should be a joint level 5 raid with Cresselia, in which the trainers could participate. A large group photo was planned afterwards.
For this reason, countless coaches gathered on the square in front of the team lounge. After the raid egg finally hatched and hundreds of trainers tried to open the arena at the same time, most of them said goodbye to the game and, on top of that, the mobile network also crashed for some.
Normally this kind of thing triggers strong criticism in the community, but I had the feeling that the mood was still boisterous and that people who finally made it into the raid lobby were treated to it.
And there was a lot of cheering when the photo was taken afterwards. Niantic rounded off the group photo on the second day of the event with a special fireworks display, once again underscoring the special atmosphere that prevailed at that moment.
My personal highlight at the GO Fest in Berlin
In addition to the unique atmosphere, which just made you want to go with it, the GO Fest in Berlin also brought me my very personal highlight: the various autograph sessions.
Here you could meet German as well as international content creators, such as Spieletrend, ChaosLady, Couple of Gaming or Trainer Tips. And we too had planned to go to one of these events.
However, while walking around the park, we suddenly bumped into Billy Lutz, known on social media and YouTube as The Trainer Club. I really enjoy following his content and was therefore all the happier when we chatted briefly and were able to take a photo with him.
By the way: ChaosLady recently gave us an interview about Wayfarer and what to look out for when submitting PokéStops.
Pokémon GO: Expert reveals tips for applying for PokéStops – “There are absolute no-gos”
Spawns, Shinys and Bonuses
Of course, my yield of spawns and shinys was also really good. I was able to catch a total of 10 shinys, none of which I had before. And I also liked the Pokémon that were in the spawns of the various habitats.
The Unown spawns are particularly worth mentioning here. These always appeared on the hour for exactly 2 minutes in the game. This allowed participants to secure 2 Shiny-Icognitos and also work on their “Icognito” medal. So I finally had the opportunity to meet Vegimak and Sodamak.
Due to the shortened hatching distance, I also hatched tons of eggs. Since there were PokéStops and Gyms everywhere, getting supplies wasn’t a problem at all. On top of that, by turning up new research tasks, I’ve also been able to catch some strong monsters from the reward.
In addition to praise, there is also criticism of the GO Fest in Berlin
However, there were also things that I didn’t like so much on site. This includes the fact that sometimes no drinks were allowed to be taken in at the entrance controls. However, no clear procedure was recognizable, because some were not allowed to take any bottles with them, others only small ones and still others even had several 1.5 liter bottles with them.
I therefore found the price for drinks in the park to be relatively high at EUR 5.00 for a non-alcoholic drink. Especially since it was announced in advance on the Niantic website that closed water bottles may be taken with you.
In my opinion, however, the existing free refill stations for water were always overcrowded and far too few in relation to the people in the park. This should be improved again for future events.
My summary of the GO Fest in Berlin
Even if there is one point of criticism, for me the positive aspects of the event outweigh the negative ones. The unique feeling on site, which is hard to put into words, the new contacts I was able to make and my meeting with The Trainer Club made the live event perfect for me.
There were also cool spawns and bonuses and a really great end to the second GO Fest day in Berlin. In fact, I have never experienced a comparable event of this kind and would therefore take part again immediately, maybe even in another country, and recommend it to you too.
Were you at the GO Fest in Berlin? If so, what was your personal highlight of the event? And what did you not like at all? Will you take part in such an event again? Feel free to write us your opinion here on MeinMMO in the comments and exchange ideas with other trainers.
There’s a lot going on in Pokémon GO in the coming weeks. We’ll show you all the events in July and which ones are particularly worthwhile.