Chattanooga Times Free Press - ChattanoogaNow
Beerbasaur, I pikachug you!
“POKEMON GO”-THEMED PUB CRAWL EXPECTED TO ATTRACT HUNDREDS OF PARTICIPANTS
Thanks to the internet, it’s become almost mundane to see something experience an explosive burst of popularity before rapidly fading back into obscurity, but no one could have anticipated the attention- grabbing juggernaut that is “Pokemon Go.”
Since its release on July 6, the mobile game about capturing digital creatures while walking around the real world has dominated headlines, dramatically affected the stock market, attracted more than 20 million players and resulted in countless calories burned through unintentional exercise.
It’s also fueled more than a few entrepreneurial endeavors, from people volunteering themselves and their cars as hunting taxi services to businesses attracting customers by taking advantage of their status as in-game “pokestops,” real-world locations that offer players free items.
On Friday, Aug. 12, Chattanooga-based music- and community- driven platform Undaground is trying its hand at leveraging the game’s massive popularity to bring together different aspects of the community as the host of a “Pokemon Go”-themed pub crawl.
But even they didn’t anticipate the response they’d receive when they announced work on the event 10 days after the game’s launch.
“Logistics- wise, i t’s getting scary ,” says Undaground spokesperson Ian Tejada. “It’s a good problem to have, but we announced it online, and it went locally viral.”
The Facebook event page for the Pokecrawl reached more than 60,000 people, Tejada says, more than 1,100 of whom indicated they were interested and more than 300 of whom confirmed they will take part. Because of the enthusiastic response, organizers had to quickly retool the event to take participants along the intended route in waves rather than as a bulk group.
“We can’t show up with 200 or 300 people deep, but if we show up with 50 more when 50 walk out, that’s steady; that’s good for businesses,” Trejada says. “I feel a little foolish for not expecting this to be this big and prepping it as such.”
The crawl will take digital hunters on a “Pokemon Go” and alcohol-fueled safari along a course starting with a slow wind through various North Shore bars that are offering drink specials and putting out digital “lures,” in-game items that increase the rates at which Pokemon appear.
The f irst half of the event will be capped off with an extended hunt in Coolidge Park. From there, participants will board a Chattanooga Cycleboats vessel for a slow cruise across the river while sipping free beer from Terminal Brewhouse. Once passengers disembark, the hunt continues at Big River Grille and other downtown restaurants. After about four hours of lobbing pokeballs and building up their collections, the crawl will end at Hair of the Dog.
Based on advance sales and online buzz, organizers are considering adding more locations to the event and already are planning future crawls in midtown and the Southside, Tejada says.
“We’re doing these not to make money but to literally just bring a lot of people out together,” Tejada says. “This is something that’s affecting culture, and Undaground really strives to be at the heart of culture, local culture.
“We like the idea of raving up Chattanooga by connecting different parts of culture. ‘Pokemon Go’ just provided a really good opportunity to do that.”