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Best GO Fest Ever
Description
Lured Up Podcast 396
Live Streamed on - 6/9/2026
Publish Date - 6/12/2026
To all the new listeners: WELCOME and THANK YOU for checking out LURED UP!
We are back home from GO Fest Chicago and we are both in agreement that this was the best IRL GO Fest that we have ever attended. There is plenty to unpack to back up our sentiment, beginning with how the introduction of different gameplay “Districts” put you right into the gameplay, as soon as you stepped off the plane. It was an amazing feeling to have the event come to life as soon as arriving in Chicago, and the barrage of geo-based Timed Research kept Trainers tied to their games as the grind through a flurry of tasks.
Even moving from the airport to our hotel kept us immersed in the game, making the gameboard come to life. If really make Trainers feel like they were looking at an in-game world map at their feet. The geo fencing of districts paired with associated Timed Research had players covering a serious amount of territory. If this is any indication of how IRL events can curate and shape real life gameplay behaviors, than this is just the tip of a very exciting iceberg.
We had a full weekend of gameplay, including countless Raids and an insane amount of walking. Both of our Adventure Sync numbers were above 120km. In typical Lured Up fashion, we had stuff going on all weekend. On Friday nights we hosted our meetup at Monk’s Pub, the same place as our 2019 meetup. You all SHOWED UP and we had double the turnout than we expected, and we are so grateful to have been able to spend time with all of you. Next year we will need a new venue!
Saturday night was Adam’s idea, with a Pokémon themed Pop-Punk night. All of the bands on the bill were incredible, with Midway Down headlining and absolutely brought the house down. It was so much fun to hang with the community in that setting. We will absolutely be incorporating live music/entertainment into our plans next year!
Finally on Friday we met up with our good friend JT Valor for a final push of Raids at the end of the weekend. In typical Raid Train Fashion, we ended up picking up Trainers at every stop. It was VERY cool to see JT in action. He gives so much of himself to his fans and spends heaps of time with everyone. JT’s combination of hardcore gameplay, travel, and approachability is PGO video content at its best.
In typical live-service fashion, it seemed that about as soon as we stepped on the airplane to come home, new news was dropping about the events happening through the end of the month. We blast through the news and cover all of the new event info released post-Chicago.
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