'Pokémon Go' Festivals 2017: Fans speculate about where future events might take place

The summer looks like it's going to be an exciting one for Pokémon Go players. We're a little less than a week away from a fire- and ice-themed solstice event, and coming later in the summer — according to an interview in Brazilian newspaper O Globo — we could be seeing both a legendary event and changes to the importance of players' team affiliations.

A mid-July Pokémon Go Festival in Chicago was announced Thursday, so now the floodgates are open to speculate about where other festivals might be coming — and the prognosis looks good.

Pokémon Go Festivals 2017: Could we be seeing more Ingress-like events?

A thread on the Silph Road posted this map showing where Ingress has held past events. Primary events, ones that happened in larger cities, seemed to indicate most major cities have had an event during Ingress's lifetime. So, it stands to reason other big cities can expect a significant Pokémon Go event in the future, if the Pokémon Go festival in Chicago goes well.

If you live outside the Midwest, we can put your FOMO to rest. According to a breakdown from Silph Road poster La3Rat, Ingress events never offer exclusive items — everything you can get from attending an event are items you can already get from playing the game normally. The bigger question will be how Niantic plans to implement this for Pokémon Go, given that promo codes for the game are still only active for Android users.

In another thread on the Silph Road, longtime Ingress user named slothguard gave some helpful insights about how Niantic events tend to work. Slothguard explained Niantic rarely holds events in a single location, so although the anniversary event might be coming to Chicago, chances are good future events will take place in other cities, too. And according to Slothguard, Niantic won't reward cheaters at the events.

Niantic requires physical check-in at all events, which means spoofers won't benefit. Rewards for Ingress were previously given out on cards, but due to those being sold and transferred the company changed to putting said rewards directly on a trainer's account. It's good to hear that in addition to Niantic's attempts to stop cheaters, spoofers won't be able to snag items given out at Niantic's live events.

This summer was promised to be legendary in Pokémon Go, and all indications point to that really happening.

More Pokémon Go news, updates, tips and tricks

Check out Mic's Pokémon Go guides on how to get stardust, how to determine how long it will take you to reach level 40, the kind of Pokémon you get from 10-kilometer eggs, how to create new PokéStops, how to maximize your chances of catching Pokémon and how PokéStops distribute Pokémon eggs. Also check out how to catch Gen 2 baby Pokémon, our analysis of post-balance update Chansey and Rhydon and everything you need to know about finding the long-awaited Pokémon Ditto.