Thousands of eager Chicago-area pokehunters lined up virtually for the first day of ticket sales for the ‘Pokémon Fossil Museum’ opening soon in the city’s Field Museum.
The special exhibition at the Field Museum, located at 1400 South DuSable Lake Shore Drive, compares fossils of creatures from the video game series with real ancient life forms. The opening in Chicago on May 22 will be the exhibit’s international debut.
Tickets went on sale at noon on Tuesday, drawing many Pokémon fans to the queue.
An NBC Chicago producer who was in the virtual line around 1 p.m. was told that over 23,000 people were in line ahead of her.
The website also said her estimated wait time to get to the page where tickets can be purchased was more than an hour.
Screenshot of the Field Museum ticket queue website on March 3 around 1 p.m.
“We’re experiencing high web traffic —tickets to After 5 at the Field for Tuesday, March 3 are available for purchase in person at the Museum,” a banner on the Field Museum’s website said Tuesday.
Many Reddit users discussed workarounds to getting the tickets after losing hope on the long virtual line on a thread titled “Anyone successfully get tickets to the Chicago Pokemon Fossil Museum?” on the r/pokemon subreddit.
“It’s been 3 hours of trying to get tickets.. I’m about to give up. Anyone have success?” the original post says.
Created by the Field Museum, the National Museum of Nature and Science in Tokyo and the Pokémon Company, Chicagoans can visit the exhibition until April 11, 2027.
“Aligned with the Field Museum’s mission to connect us to the natural world, the Pokémon Fossil Museum will inspire visitors to make new discoveries about some of their favorite Pokémon while offering a pathway to science, especially budding paleontologists,” said Jaap Hoogstraten, Head of Exhibitions at the Field Museum.
More information on the exhibition is available here.
