Pokémon No! at Peterborough Arena

UK event venue Peterborough Arena has called for the geocaching game Pokémon Go to be turned off at the East of England Showground site. The augmented reality videogame has attracted millions of players across the world, and was launched in the UK this month. Making use of GPS and the camera of compatible devices, the game allows players to capture, battle, and train virtual creatures (Pokémon), who appear on device screens as though in the real world. Head of operations at Peterborough Arena, Jason Lunn, says: “The Pokémon game has no defined area limits. We’ve heard of people getting out of cars on motorways and several venues have reported people going into non-public areas putting their safety at risk. “We’ve seen this recently with young people on a few events and are now having to add into our planning the risk of people wandering in looking at their phones and not what’s around them. This is particularly risky during event build up periods.’’ Lunn said he had contacted the makers of the Pokémon game to ask them to switch off the content on the Arena site. “They have said they will do so, however we haven’t seen it turned off yet,” he added. Is the Pokémon Go craze affecting your venue? Let us know if you have a story.