Pokémon GO Unveils Sustainability Week Events and Chicago Fest 2026 Details

Silicobra's long-awaited Pokémon GO debut is locked in, and trainers have a chance to weigh in on GO Fest Chicago before it opens, as Niantic dropped two major announcements covering events spanning from April through June.

Sustainability Week is set to run from Tuesday, April 14, at 10:00 a.m. through Monday, April 20, 2026, at 8:00 p.m. local time. The event is an annual celebration tied to real-world Earth Day in April; Niantic skipped the 2025 edition, making this year's return notable for players who've missed the format.

The headline addition is the Ground-type Silicobra and its evolution, Sandaconda, making their Pokémon GO debuts. Silicobra will spawn in the wild and can be evolved into Sandaconda using 50 Silicobra Candy. The event will also debut the shiny variant of Toedscool and release Galarian Corsola wearing pink sunglasses. Galarian Corsola with sunglasses will spawn more frequently on Routes, along with increased shiny odds for Togetic, Trubbish, and Lapras.

This year's Sustainability Week puts a heavy emphasis on Pokémon GO's Routes feature, the mechanic designed to reward walking with the community. Route-specific spawns rotate in three windows across the week: Togetic and Galarian Corsola with sunglasses appear April 14 to April 16, Galarian Corsola with sunglasses and Trubbish follow from April 16 to April 18, and Lapras joins Galarian Corsola with sunglasses for the final stretch from April 18 to April 20.

A free GO Pass tracks automatically for all trainers from April 14 at 10:00 a.m., with GO Points earned through Monday, April 20, at 8:00 p.m. unlocking escalating rewards. A $4.99 GO Pass Deluxe upgrade offers faster progression and improved rewards, while a $6.99 tier automatically grants enough points to reach Rank 7.

On the live-event side, the GO Fest Chicago details are equally compelling. RedPeg Marketing and Niantic will co-host a virtual community engagement meeting on Tuesday, March 31, from 6:00 to 6:45 p.m. CDT to preview the festival. GO Fest returns to Grant Park from June 5 to 7, 2026, with citywide gameplay starting June 4; it is the first time the event has been in Chicago since 2019.

Unlike past editions, the 2026 festival will feature an open footprint format, meaning the space in and around Grant Park will remain accessible to the public without perimeter fencing. Daily attendance is capped at 40,000 people. One-day tickets are priced at $33, plus applicable taxes and fees.

The in-game rewards make the in-person trip worth considering. Ticket-holding trainers who attend Grant Park will complete Special Research that leads to an encounter with Zeraora, the Thunderclap Pokémon, included in the base ticket. Mewtwo returns to five-star raids and will appear in citywide Raid Battles throughout the event. Attendees also get access to a Chicago-exclusive Pikachu wearing a Team Instinct hat, with a chance at the shiny version.

For trainers who can't make the trip to Illinois, a global companion event, Pokémon GO Fest 2026: Global, is scheduled for July 11 and 12, 2026.