A wedding party had to share a park with a large group of Pokémon GO players. This led to complaints, and the park management had to intervene.
What happened? During the community day with Knacklion in October, there was a dispute between the PoGO trainers and a wedding party in Loveland, Colorado.
The trainers gathered in large numbers for the community day in the Loveland park to hunt for Knacklion and its shiny version. Pokémon appeared more frequently there than at other locations, and the players wanted to make the most of the community day.
This led to a clash between the wedding party, for which part of the park was reserved, and the trainers. Both sides had their own version of what happened on site.
This is what the wedding party says: The first problems arose when the wedding guests arrived at the park and it turned out that many of the available parking spaces were occupied by Pokémon GO trainers. Therefore, there were not enough for the wedding party.
An article from ReporterHerald stated that the trainers interrupted the wedding by wandering across the grounds where the wedding was supposed to take place without permission.
People were walking across the reserved area without looking away from their smartphones. One of our employees saw someone literally walk into a door because they were distracted and not paying attention to where they were going.
This is what the trainers say: Of course, the trainers have their own version of what happened in the park. One of the players stated that the wedding had not even started at the time of the community day.
Parking spots for cars in the park cannot be reserved, so the wedding guests cannot complain that they were occupied. Furthermore, the barriers for the wedding area were not clearly marked.
However, the park management seems to share the trainers’ perspective. In a statement on their site, they indicated that the players did not need to apply for a permit to hold an event.
[The meeting] was not a traditionally organized event and therefore does not fall under the regulations of local permits for event activities.
They had every right to be in the park, even though a wedding was taking place at the same time.
What are the consequences? However, the management was consistent and contacted Niantic, the developers of Pokémon GO, after the incident. They requested to exclude the small part of the park that is often reserved for events from future community days.
The trainers can freely move around the remaining part of the area. The management also thanked the players for their cooperation and expressed understanding of how important Benson Park is to them.
