Mumbai’s biggest Pokémon Go event cancelled

Ever since the launch of augmented reality game Pokémon Go earlier this month, it has witnessed an unsurmountable craze, unlike any other game before it.

Needless to say, Mumbaikars also took a liking to the addictive game instantly, with many organizing events to catch ‘Pokémons’ placed around the city.

So far, the city has seen a handful ‘Pokewalk’ events organized by individuals in Churchgate, Powai, Navi Mumbai etc.

But, as far as attendees were concerned, they paled in comparison to the one organized by Tany Corleone Joseph.

Tany’s ‘Pokewalk Mumbai’ event, which was scheduled for July 23, went viral on Facebook with over 7,000 confirmed attendees and almost 20,000 tentative ones. The event was supposed to start from Churchgate and go all the way till Marine Drive.

Tany, however, left thousands disappointed when he posted about the event’s cancellation because of the security concern over hosting over 7,000 individuals in South Bombay while the assembly was underway.

The organizer posted a detailed message on the Facebook page, explaining the reason behind the event’s cancellation:

Hello Trainers,

We regret to inform you that our Pokéwalk Mumbai scheduled for the 23rd of July has been cancelled.

The reason for the cancellation is that there has been lot of issues regarding permissions to accommodate almost 7k trainers at Marine Drive. Also, there is an assembly going on which has increased the security all over South Bombay.

For the past 1 week we have been making day and night rounds to various police stations all over South Bombay, and also spoke to the DCP but to no use.

We hope you will understand the circumstances under which we have taken this decision. We once again sincerely apologise for the inconvenience caused.

To make up for it we will be holding contests in the event page and giving out freebies to some lucky ones.

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Rahul Dighe, who was looking forward to attending the event, said, “I am extremely disappointed that the event was cancelled. But I understand why the organizer had to take such a step. He is not to blame. I am hoping that we are able to get a permission to host the event next weekend.”

About Pokémon Go

The free location-based augmented reality mobile game has become a worldwide phenomenon since its release this month, with more active users than micro-blogging platform Twitter. The game allows users to capture, train and fight virtual creatures, called Pokémon. Users are encouraged to walk and locate Pokémon available in the vicinity.

While the game has already gone viral in the country, with India ranked 4th in terms of total Pokemon Go players, it yet to officially release in India.