programming

november 9, 2024


catvideofest
1:00 - 2:30 PM

What better way to kick off the first annual Virginia Cat Festival than watching cats being their weird and wonderful selves?! 

CatVideoFest 2024, presented by Oscilloscope Laboratories, is a compilation of the latest and best cat videos culled from countless hours of unique submissions and sourced animations, music videos, and classic internet powerhouses. 

This program is extra special because each year, across the country, a portion of ticket proceeds from every CatVideoFest show goes directly to local cats in need. Keeping with this tradition, the Virginia Cat Festival will make a donation to the Heritage Humane Society, a nonprofit animal shelter in Williamsburg.

Headshot of Jackson Galaxy

Jackson galaxy
3:30 - 4:30 PM

Jackson is an animal advocate and a renowned cat behavior and wellness expert with over 30 years of experience. He hosted Animal Planet's My Cat from Hell, a long-running hit show which helped countless cat parents address feline behavioral issues. His unique ability to connect with cats emerged from his background working at a large animal shelter and laid the foundation for his private practice, his TV show, and his platform as a digital content creator with over 7 million followers.

Jackson is a two-time New York Times best-selling author of the books Cat Daddy, Catification, Catify to Satisfy, and Total Cat Mojo. His foundational approach to a happier, more confident cat and a deeper human-animal relationship centers around understanding and honoring who he calls “the Raw Cat”: the ancestral wild animal that lives within each individual.

Logo for VCF's Funniest Cat People

Virginia cat festival’s
funniest cat people
5:30 - 7:00 PM

This show is a riff on the classic TV show America’s Funniest Home Videos featuring only cat videos, of course! A team of comedians will use cat videos and photos submitted by you, our cat-lovin’ festival attendees, as inspiration for improvised comedy and other shenanigans.  

True to AFV’s style, there will be prizes (besides the pure joy of seeing your fur baby on the big screen). Submit your best cat video or photo here and join us for this show full of surprises!

Cats movie poster

cats: feral edition
9:00 - 11:00 PM

“No amount of A-list stars can save Tom Hooper’s dire Lloyd Webber adaptation from being a career low for all involved” – The Guardian

Ouch. The movie was bad. If you saw it, you already know that. 

So, why are we screening it? Because this will not be a normal movie screening. This is the “feral edition.” We will heckle the film–hiss when things are particularly slow, shout at James Corden as he digs through CGI garbage for 5 agonizing minutes, sing along to the terrible songs, and more. It will be a rowdy good time where we turn this “career low for all involved” into a festival high note.