Sydney Opera House Is Hosting a Giant Pokemon Go Gathering

If ever you needed an excuse to bunk off work on a winter Wednesday, get your doc to write Pokemon Go get-together on your certificate. Sydney Opera House is hosting a Poke-gathering on Wednesday between 12pm-2pm, so you should start practicing your sick voice now (and probably gear up for a job hunt).

The Opera House has pledged to load up their adjacent Poke stops with lures for two hours and let the crowd go nuts. But they're not the first ones to capitalise on the game's extreme global popularity (or the attraction of a well-placed lure). Events have been popping up all over the country, from Poke-walks, Poke-pub crawls, Poke-parties ("We suggest you have Nurse Joy on standby Saturday morning, this is going to be big,"), to Pokemon Go social groups — there are contingents in Brisbane, Melbourne, Sunshine Coast, Sydney, Perth and some even localised to specific suburbs.

Local businesses are also jumping on the Pokemon Go bandwagon. A Chinese restaurant in Melbourne has offering up to 30 percent off for Pokemon Go players with specific Pokemon, Virgin Australia is offering free charging at all their stores, and local businesses are scrambling to nab some of the foot traffic with the Pokemon Go-ers.

Niantic Labs have recently confirmed that one of the new features as the game develops will be sponsored Pokestops (McDonalds is rumoured to be one such stop), which brings with it a new range of possibility (and corporate sponsorship) for players (we just desperately hope it means some sort of Jigglypuff-themed McFlurry).

Image: Flickr.