Great Wall of Oakland

5/13/13

OAKLAND CAT INTERNET VIDEO FESTIVAL AT THE GREAT WALL

Hi fwwwiends! We attended a purrfectly fun event this Saturday at the Great Wall. As lovers of the furry felines, we happily put on our cat costumes and scurried down to Oakland to watch all our favorite Internet kitties. My all-time favorite Internet cat is Sparta Cat, but many were featured at this fundraiser for the East Bay SPCA.  Adoptions took place and a couple people brought their kitties along with them. I do have an enclosed cat stroller but thought our cats would prefer staying at home. Soothing cat massage instruction was offered. And all attendees were invited to strut for treats at the cat walk!! Face painting for $5 donations put whiskers on a lot of faces!Tickets for adults were $10 in advance or $15 at the door.

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The Great Wall of Oakland worked with the Walker Art Center to bring this Festival to Oakland, and the Mayor of Oakland even declared the day an official festival day for Oakland. There were a lot of people in attendance, though I'm not sure they hit the 5,000 mark they'd hoped for. The first 500 people received free bags of cat food, but I'm pretty sure that was just a way to encourage early arrival and they actually had  a lot more than 500 free bags. Ten lucky participants won touch-screen gloves as well when purchasing tickets through EventBrite. (We won a pair!)

The Great Wall made a wonderful backdrop for bands performing, aerial dancers, a juggling circus, and ultimately the cat videos. We didn't stay until dark so we only participated in the daytime cativities, and had a really great time doing so! The Great Wall hosts so many awesome aerial performances, this was the first time I'd seen the streets nearby closed off as well. Really fun! Can't wait for the next annual cat festival!