Pokémon Mega Festa event in Seoul cancelled due to overcrowding, as over 40,000 visitors arrive for card giveaway

The big Pokémon 30th anniversary event scheduled for South Korea is the Pokémon Mega Festa, a title which encompasses several different celebrations including themed areas, merchandise, athletic events, and tie-ins with Pokémon GO. One of the introductory events for Mega Festa’s opening day, May 1st, was a Pokémon GO stamp rally with a Pokémon TCG card as the completion prize. The event has been suddenly cancelled due to large crowds flooding into the Pokémon Secret Forest, in Seoul Forest Park in the Seongdong District of Seoul.

The stamp rally was “temporarily suspended” according to the official Pokémon Korea X (formerly Twitter) account, though it was effectively cancelled; very few, if any, cards were given out and visitors were told to disperse by police and firefighters called to the scene. Apparently, the Seoul city government requested the cancellation, while official Pokémon Korea notices cite safety concerns. Access has been restricted both to the Pokémon Secret Forest and to the nearby Ditto Playground, which was holding a similar stamp rally with paper visors as the prize.

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Local news estimates that about 40,000 visitors arrived to Seoul Forest Park in hopes of getting the Magikarp promo card, though visitors on the ground estimate as many as 100,000 people in the crowd. The card is already being advertised for between ₩120,000 and ₩286,000 KRW (~$81 to $195 USD) on secondhand websites. Visitors to the event report fighting and injuries, as some people who arrived as early as 5 AM refused to leave without the card. Pokémon Korea has announced that there is a plan in place to distribute the card to anyone who completed the stamp rally, but some attendees are dissatisfied with the sudden cancellation and overall mismanagement of the event.

Pokémon Korea states that the promo card will be distributed to those who fill out an online form, which is scheduled to be available on May 4th. It’s currently unclear how Pokémon will verify who attended the event or if there are enough cards to distribute to all the participants. “Those of you who met the stamp rally conditions today can all receive it, so please go home with peace of mind,” the company stated via X.

A reopening date has not been announced for either Pokémon Secret Forest or the Ditto Playground, though both were originally slated to be open until June 21st. Currently, all the other events that are part of the Pokémon Mega Festa are scheduled to go forward, including the upcoming Pokémon Run, also happening in Seoul on May 5th.

 

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