PhenoMNal Twin Cities

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I sense the Walker Art Center has started a revolution of sorts.  Last night, 10,000 people packed into Open Field at the Walker Art Center to watch videos of cats.  The festival had been recognized by Time Magazine, Gawker, ABC News, among others.  Last night, #catvidfest trended nationally on Twitter.

I had super high expectations for The Internet Cat Video Film Fest and Open Field totally blew me away.  The weather was perfect and the crowd eventually swelled to standing room only!  For an event held in an “open” field, that’s really impressive.  Before the film fest started, there was plenty of activities to get attendees in the mood for fun.  Food and beverage was available for purchase.  There was live music by Brian Laidlaw and the Family Trade.  This folk and bluegrass band was really terrific.  They also had free yarn kitty toys courtesy of  The Big String Thing yarn bombers and make your own custom letterpress posters by Lunalux.  We also visited the station where you could make your own buttons to support your favorite cat (Maru, obviously).  We had such a blast before the film fest even started.  Once we sat down to relax, we started noticing all the cats on tour. Tons of unusually calm cats were on leashes and making the rounds with their owners to say hello to everyone.

The film fest itself was absolutely fantastic.  The crowd completely ATE IT UP!  Everyone was having so much fun cheering and laughing.  It’s good that everyone was in such a friendly spirit because we were all piled on top of each other.  I’m not sure exactly how many people showed up but it was completely packed .  Next year they will definitely need a larger screen and probably to extend the fest over a few days because there would be no more room for growth!

The entire set of film fest videos can be seen here.  This is the perfect set list of videos to watch when you feel sad.  I spent most of the evening laughing so hard that tears were streaming down my face.  This festival put me in a fantastic mood and is probably my favorite event of 2012!  It’s hard to believe that so much enjoyment could be entirely free (except for food purchased).

I have embedded my favorite video of the night below for your enjoyment (MAKE SURE YOUR SOUND IS ON). It may not be as cute as many of the videos in the fest but it’s one of the most creative.  If you’re curious, viewer’s choice went to Henry 2, Paw de Deux, which can be seen here.