Thousands of Cat Lovers Turn Out for the L.A. Feline Film Festival
Published on September 22, 2014

Complete with celebrity sightings, the big screen and large crowds, Sunday was a purr-fect day in Los Angeles for The L.A. Feline Film Festival.
And this isn’t the first time for the festival, although it is new to L.A. The first Internet Cat Video Festival was held outside the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis in August 2012.
As many as 10,000 people attended the event, reported the U.K.’s Daily Mail. The festival featured a compilation of the year’s most-watched Internet cat videos on an 80-foot outdoor screen — for both human and feline viewers.
Fans stood in line for hours to meet stars like Lil’ Bub, the perma-kitten; Dusty the Klepto Cat; and Tara the Hero Cat, who made headlines when she protected her family’s little boy from a dog attack in California in May.
“I’m willing to wait a couple of hours at least; it’s not too bad. She’s really cute,” said one Lil’ Bub fan featured in a video from the festival. Like many of the attendees, she sported a cat-inspired costume for the festival’s Cat Crazy Costume Contest.
“Cats are experiencing a second renaissance,” festival director and Organikat founder Erik DeLeo told the Daily Mail. “Not since the ancient Egyptians in recorded history have cats been worshipped like they are today.”
Musical acts as well as cat rescue and adoption groups were also on hand for the festivities. The festival was sponsored by the Walker Art Center and Organikat, a cat product company that donates 5 percent of its after-tax profits to pet adoption services, no-kill animal shelters, spaying/neutering efforts and more. The proceeds of the festival will also help animals in need.