Remember the disastrous Pokemon GO [Free] festival in Chicago last year" We ended up recording a whole podcast on it, and after a day where Niantic charged people money to cram into a park on a sweltering summer day where nothing worked and everything was terrible, they issued an official apology. During the podcast, we mentioned how little sense hosting an event like this actually made, as Pokemon GO requires good cellular connectivity. Anyone who has been to a big music festival, sports game, convention, or anything else knows just how difficult even sending a text message can be when you suddenly cram tens of thousands (or more) additional cell phones on the single nearby tower. At the time, it was a bit of a mystery why they made Pokemon GO festival a centralized thing instead of just making it a global event everyone can enjoy. Well, that's exactly what Pokemon GO Community Day is.
The first one kicks off on January 20th, starting at different times depending on your specific region. From their web site:

The Asia-Pacific region: January 20, 2018, from 12:00 P.M. to 3:00 P.M. JST (GMT +9)
Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and India: January 20, 2018, from 10:00 A.M. to 1:00 P.M. UTC (GMT +0)
The Americas and Greenland: January 20, 2018, from 11:00 A.M. to 2:00 P.M. PST (GMT -8)

Additionally, Pokemon GO Community Day is going to be a monthly event, and the whole idea behind it is to get people out to parks and other places where Pokemon can be found, and both sp...