By Tamara Palmer
This Saturday (May 10) is totally going to be Caturday on both sides of the Bay, with the coinciding yet totally separate Oakland Internet Cat Video Festival and the First Annual San Francisco Intergalactic Feline Film + Video Festival for Humans.
The Oakland event, a benefit for East Bay SPCA, takes place from 3-10 p.m. on West Grand between Telegraph and Broadway, where you’ll find cat-friendly craft vendors, cat adoptions, a stage for comedians, aerial dance troupes and the like, and Internet videos screening on the Great Wall of Oakland. But the undeniable headliner of the day will be Lil Bub, the adorable perma-kitten with the perpetually askew tongue. The choice celebrity cats available for meet and greets also includes Dusty the Klepto Kitty, a domestic male Snowshoe who was featured as the “Cat Burglar” on Late Night with David Letterman. In 2011, the host revealed that Dusty had swiped 213 dish towels, 18 shoes, 73 socks, 100 gloves, 40 balls, four pair of underwear, three legwarmers "and one dinette set.”
But the undeniable headliner of the day will be Lil Bub, the adorable perma-kitten with the perpetually askew tongue.
If last year’s inaugural event was any indication, this is going to be a place for prime people watching as the users who make cats the overlords of the Internet turn out in full furry costumes, ears, and even face masks (the harrowing version of Grumpy Cat that was spotted on the street in 2013). Admission to the Catvidfest is $10, but if you want to pet Lil Bub you’ll have to cough up $50 or $75; the latter comes with a plush Bub.
Meanwhile in San Francisco, the Roxie Theater plays host to a comparatively more intimate gathering of people who like to watch Internet cat videos, screening at noon, 4 p.m., and 8 p.m. for a $12 admission fee. With no emphasis on dressing up and no confirmed celebrity kitty appearances (though there are rumblings of a “special guest” of indeterminate species), the Intergalactic Fest will probably be a lot less colorful than the Oakland event. But you never know.
Photo via Lilbub.com