Pokemon GO City Safari Mumbai 2025: Fiesta and festivities abound!

If you are a Pokemon GO fan and are anywhere in/near Mumbai, the Phoenix Palladium Mall is the place you would likely want to be tomorrow (March 30, 2025). While the whole of the city is celebrating the GO City Safari (the country's first such event), especially at different hotspots, the aforementioned mall is hosting a Pokemon fiesta.

There are prizes to win, a social media campaign to participate in, a stamp hunt to complete, and plenty more.

Having spent roughly four to five hours there today (till the end of the proceedings), I am both pleasantly surprised and excited about the future of Pokemon GO's real-life physical events in India.

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Pokemon GO City Safari Mumbai seems to be the perfect start

The stage and the set-up

Upon an invite from Niantic, I found myself in the City of Dreams early morning today (March 29, 2025), preparing for the first day of the GO City Safari Mumbai. As mentioned previously, this is the first time such a Pokemon GO event is taking place in the subcontinent, and I expected players from all around the country to show up — and I wasn't disappointed.

Pokemon GO Gyms galore in City Safari Mumbai (Image via Angshuman Dutta)

Alighting from the cab, I could already see a large, inflated Pikachu beckoning trainers. I quickly made my way past it to see the courtyard area of the mall completely decked for the festivities. There were installations replicating in-game PokeStops, Gyms, and banners representing the three factions. The faction leader cutouts were also there.

There were plenty of places for you to take pictures against — the biggest (quite literally) being the giant, inflated Pikachu that sat right near the stage. Most people there were already wearing a Pikachu headband that you could see from far away.

Games and rewards

There were small booths packed with helpful staff members, coordinating information, the social media campaign participation, and the stamp hunt. There was also a game where you throw six PokeBalls at little cardboard Pokemon cutouts. Knocking them over will net you stickers, with knocking three or more giving a hidden sticker — I netted a Seadra.

The social media campaign saw you following the official Pokemon India Instagram handle and commenting/sharing a specific post with your friends. This is nothing new when it comes to such campaigns, and I had no issue with it, especially since the reward for doing so is a little Captain Pikachu key ring.

It does look neat and will find its place beside my Gengar, Iron Thorns, and Charmander figurines.

Pokemon GO City Safari Mumbai Stamp Hunt (Image via Angshuman Dutta)

With the stamp hunt, you will have to make your way to three specific points around the mall. The stamps are of the three Paldean starters — Fuecoco, Sprigatito, and Quaxly. I think you are supposed to state the name of the specific starter at their respective station, but I didn't have to.

The rewards were a bit underwhelming (stickers and a pencil), and I will be treasuring the stamped page more.

Fiesta and its festive offerings

I had the good fortune of chatting with Sundarraman Ramalingam, India Manager, Niantic Inc., and Rafael Siregar, Head of APAC Emerging Markets, Pokémon GO (exclusives will follow soon, so more on that later). After that, I made my way to catch the festivities.

The crowd did surprise me at first. Even though I expected trainers from other cities to show up, the sheer number of people present there, catching Mudbrays and Pikachus in sarees/kurtas and picking up Pokemon plushies, made me really happy. Niantic will surely be investing further into the subcontinent with such events.

Today, PokeDaxi and YuriGames were there on stage at the GO City Safari Mumbai event, taking pictures with ardent fans and hardcore trainers. I am guessing tomorrow we will see The Trainer Club and ZoeTwoDots. After that, there were giveaways of Mumbai Indians signed bats, home-ground IPL 2025 match tickets, and the team's signed jerseys.

Giveaways for local Pokemon GO fans (Image via Angshuman Dutta)

What I initially thought of as a move to simply rope in the local crowd turned out to be something quite delightful. Instead of doing some random giveaways, each giveaway was given to five trainers from the crowd who had caught the most Mudbrays (tickets), the most Pikachu in a saree (jersey), and the most Pikachu in a kurta (bats) today (I may have got the sequence jumbled).

The innovative involvement of the participation factor in today's event and the giveaway was a really interesting idea and one that I am sure everyone appreciated. It came off as a reward for those who invested their time to catch as many Pokemon as they could. Honestly, this is how it should be, instead of mere random giveaways that always leave people unhappy with their luck.

Closing it off — Pikachu in Kurta/Saree and a Pokemon Quiz

To finish the day, we had a Pokemon Quiz (which had five questions and five winners, with participants being selected from the crowd) where right answers got a goodie bag and an opportunity to take pictures with Pikachu in Kurta/Saree.

I had already done the latter back in October 2024 when these local variants were announced, so I gave this time a miss.

For final thoughts: But with a bang and not a whimper

Special prize for Pokemon GO trainers (Image via Angshuman Dutta)

Niantic didn't really take any step wrong with India's first City Safari Event. The Pokemon Fiesta and the associated festivities celebrated the game, its content, and the trainers who wholeheartedly participated.

One of the sweetest moments of my entire evening was as I was going to take my cab back to the hotel. I saw a trainer give their Pikachu headband to a little kid with parents who probably didn't see or know that the event was taking place inside the mall. Maybe I am romanticizing the moment more than it has to be, but today's event really hosted players and Pokemon afficianados of all ages — young and old.

Can Pokemon GO City Safari Mumbai be a springboard moment for in-person physical events in India? I strongly feel so. Is it mere optimism? Only time will tell.