A UF student and local app creators have collaborated to form a bar crawl through Midtown to catch Pokemon on Friday night.
“Pokemon Go” launched mid-July and has taken over many crazed fans.
Alex Everitt, a UF finance sophomore, and his friends were hanging out when one friend got a social media notification about a Pokemon bar crawl in Orlando.
“We started talking about it a little more and he said, ‘well, why don’t we just do one here?’” Everitt said.
He created a Facebook page for the event, and it quickly grew to more than one thousand people.
“I was like, ‘well gosh darn,’” Everitt said.
The event quickly grew and caught the attention of the Fomo app creators, Jimmy Parenteau and James Berger.
Fomo, which stands for ‘fear of missing out,’ is a free app that promotes bar specials and events in the Gainesville area, said Parenteau, a UF alumnus and one of the app’s creators. Fomo, available through the App Store and Google Play, shows real-time drink deals at both Midtown and downtown bars, and it allows users to just show their phone to a bartender to get the discount.
Parenteau knew Everitt wasn’t partnered or associated with any bars and inquired about making the event available to their app users.
“We reached out to ooZoo, Copper Monkey and Tatu,” Parenteau said. “OoZoo has a gym takeover — there is a gym between ooZoo and Wesley Chapel Church.”
The bar crawl will start at ooZoo bar Friday at 10 p.m. The bar will be doing specials for the teams in either the blue or red team. If your team wins, it’s $2, and if your team loses, it’s $4.
“It will be a really busy event,” said Parenteau, who expects UF students from all areas of campus, including Greek life and multicultural clubs, to come out and play. There is even an expectation it will expand beyond the university and attract those from all over town, with more than 1,000 people interested on Facebook and more than 300 going.
“Just by the basic response, we have people from different generations. We have people from younger generations to middle age people,” Everitt said.
There is no map for the event. However, the Fomo app will keep attendees updated with different deals at bars throughout the night.
To maximize the gaming experience, Everitt said, “I recommend people go and buy portable chargers.”
