This year, tickets for the two-day affair cost just £5 (or $5), a third of 2020’s fee. Once again, there will be no physical event, and all players will be able to take part wherever they are. There will also be plenty to do for people who don’t purchase a ticket. Day 1, Saturday 17th July from 10am until 6pm local time, will feature the return of hourly rotating habitats with themed species (Jungle, Desert Mountain, Ocean Beach and Cave) and creatures relating to music - a theme for the overall event - for all players. New costumed Pikachu will appear in the wild, while costumed Galarian Ponyta and Galarian Zigzagoon will appear in raids. Shiny Whismur, Chimecho, Audino, and Tympole will make their debuts. On top of all that, players who are ticket holders will be able to take part in hourly global challenges for bonuses, four collection challenges themed after each habitat, and be able to (somehow) put together a Pokémon music group via a new Special Research questline. This story will debut a new Mythical Pokémon to the game (which is clearly going to be the musical Meloetta). The main draw for ticket holders will be a further set of Pokémon available via Incense - all of which will have a boosted Shiny rate where appropriate. This will include Unown F and G, plus the regional-exclusives Chatot, Throh and Sawk. Unown F, Throh and Sawk will be Shiny-possible for ticket holders exclusively for the first time. Day 2, Sunday 18th July, will shift the focus to raiding - though all wild event Pokémon will continue to spawn and ticketholder Incense creatures will also continue to spawn though without that boosted shiny rate. Additionally, ticketholders will get 10 raid passes from spinning gyms during event hours, timed research for eight remote raid passes, and a further free event bundle of three remote raid passes - making for 21 passes total. Finally, across the full event, lures will last three hours, eggs will hatch in half the time, and new music from legendary Pokémon developer and composer Junichi Masuda will play in-game. Overall, it sounds like a hugely busy weekend - and one with a genuinely surprising low price. Why does it cost so little? Well, Niantic has said it has brought Google Play on as a sponsor this year - and those playing on Android will get “fun surprises and exclusive perks”. Also, it’s worth remembering, Niantic’s actual profit from Go Fest last year was zero as it donated all of its 2020 ticket sales to Black Lives Matter charities.
