Chester’s historic sites to be turned into PokéStops as Big Heritage & Pokémon GO team up for UK first

Niantic Labs the developers behind Pokémon GO and Big Heritage the award-winning Chester-based heritage social enterprise have announced the UK’s first ever Pokémon GO Event.

Big Heritage and Niantic have partnered to curate locations throughout Chester within the location-based augmented reality game in a bid to encourage people to get out and engage with the city’s history.

Events will be staged on Saturday 22nd and Sunday 23rd of July across Chester, including activities based at Chester Castle, which will be open to the public for the first time in 20 years.

Visitors to the city will be able to take part in a number of fun trail activities, with in-game and real-world surprises for Pokémon GO players. The weekend of events coincides with the annual Chester Heritage Festival, which celebrates the heritage of one of the world’s most historic cities.

Chester will also play host to Pokémon GO Trainers visiting the UK from around the world, turning historical sites into PokéStops that players can interact with.

Big Heritage will also be working with schools across the Cheshire and Merseyside regions as part of an initiative to encourage young people to explore and learn about their local area by playing Pokémon GO together.

Niantic CEO and founder John Hanke said;

I am incredibly excited about this partnership linking local history and Pokémon GO. We love the idea of using mobile games as a motivation for families to play outside together and perhaps to learn something interesting while they are at it!

Big Heritage founder Dean Paton said;

We are so excited about working with Niantic Labs, who are true innovators in their field, and as passionate as we are about getting people exploring and learning about the world around them.

It’s a genuine coup for Chester to be the ‘test bed’ for some amazing new ideas, and we hope we can use the game based on the iconic and beloved Pokemon brand as a tool for helping more people get excited about the past.