Niantic "horrified" with Pokemon GO Fest technical hiccups

Coming from a Niantic rep at the Pokemon GO Fest...

“Obviously they can’t completely make it up to all the people who have come out to Chicago today, but they want to extend the fact that they’re extremely apologetic and unhappy with the process and the results. So hopefully this is something that we will never see replicated again, learn from this and move on. Just know that the staff here are pretty horrified with the results, so they want to make good as fast as possible.

I’m super sorry guys — I’m really sorry especially for everyone who traveled international, East Coast, from all over. So this clearly was not what we were hoping for today. Thanks for your patience.”

It does sound like the event was a pretty big disaster, and that's only amplified by how many people came from out of country to attend. If Niantic does do another event, they might have quite a tough time convincing people to come.