US, UK and Taiwan to all host Pokemon Go live events in 2020

Paul Cotton

Niantic have announced that the US, UK and Taiwan will host four Pokemon Go live events in 2020.

There will be two different types of live event with four in total for Pokemon Go trainers to look forward to. Two of them will be in the US, one in the UK and one in Taiwan.

2020 schedule

Those events, in order of which is coming first, are as follows:

  1. Taiwan Lantern Festival in Taichung City – Thursday, February 6, to Sunday, February 9, 2020
  2. Safari Zone St. Louis, Missouri, US – Friday, March 27, to Sunday, March 29, 2020
  3. Safari Zone Liverpool, UK – Friday, April 17, to Sunday, April 19, 2020
  4. Safari Zone Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, US – Friday, May 8, to Sunday, May 10, 2020

Lantern Festival, Taiwan

The special Lantern Festival is a non-ticked event, which means its free! The Lantern Festival, also known as the Spring Lantern Festival, is celebrated on the fifteenth day of the first month in the lunar calendar. The day itself takes place on February 8.

The electric-types Mareep and Electrike will be appearing, presumably more frequently in the wild. In addition to this the bug-type Pokemon Volbeat and Illumise will also be spawning. The latter is typically only found in North America, South America and Africa, so it’s a great opportunity to catch the Firefly Pokemon.

Finally, the Pokemon Go blog states: “Catch an Unown L to celebrate the light-themed event, and enjoy the lovely sounds of Chimecho, the Wind Chime Pokemon.”

Safari Zone Taiwan
Taiwan played host to a Pokemon Go Safari Zone event in 2018…

Safari Zones

The last three live events are of the familiar Safari Zone variety. All the details for these events have yet to be confirmed but we do know the following.

St. Louis, Missouri

St. Louis will host the first Safari Zone of 2020. The event will take place in Tower Grove Park.

Unlike the Lantern Festival, which is a city-wide event, the first Safari Zone event will be admission only. There are early access tickets for $18 which will give you access to event gameplay two hours early. Alternatively, you can buy general admission tickets for $12.

Mankey, Unown S, Teddiursa, Snivy, and Ferroseed will be appearing more often throughout the park. Also, Chatot, which will be more familiar to Pokemon Go players in the Southern Hemisphere, will be appearing at the event to finally give Northern Hemisphere players a chance to get the Music Note Pokemon.

Safari Zone Europe
Europe has played hosted to Safari Zones, but never the UK, until now…

Liverpool, UK

The UK is finally getting a Pokemon Go Safari Zone! Taking place in Sefton Park, the ticket structure will be the same as St. Louis where it will cost £18 for early access tickets (access the event early and get two additional hours of gameplay) and £12 for general admission.

Krabby, Dratini, Chinchou, Unown V, and Oshawott are the five Pokemon that will be appearing more in the wild. The regional exclusive that is making its way to the event is Relicanth which rarely leaves its natural habitat of New Zealand, Samoa and some of the other Pacific Islands.

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

The final announced Pokemon Go live event of 2020 is held in Philadelphia. While the ticket structure will be the same as the other Safari Zone events, other details have yet to be revealed.

So, as of writing, we don’t know which Pokemon to expect to appear more frequently at the event. No doubt Niantic will share all the details soon, though.