The Cat Video Festival is coming to Columbia and it sounds purrfect

The last time Harbison Theatre at Midlands Technical College hosted a Cat Video Festival, they had to turn people away.

That’s because cats rule the internet, and a chance to watch curated cat videos with like-minded feline fanatics is hard to pass up.

“This event is completely silly and adorable. For cat parents, I think they see their own cat’s habits featured in the videos. For non-cat parent fans, this stuff is just funny,” Harbison executive director Katie Fox said.

The first Cat Video Festival was in 2012 at Minneapolis’ Walker Art Center, and 11,000 people showed up. The festival is now a touring show curated by Will Braden, a cat video auteur in his own right – he created the “Henri, le Chat Noir” series, about a black and white cat wearied from the tedium of cat life.

Braden creates a new reel each year. The festival at Harbison will have 70 minutes of cat videos interspersed with games and performances.

There are two types of videos in the festival, according to Fox: “The reality cat videos that feature some sort of cuteness, hilarity, or both, that were captured with no rehearsal or doctoring; and the created features, where humans dub voice-overs or other doctoring to make the videos extra fun.”

Some featured cats are bona fide celebrities. Before you go, here are nine famous internet cats to know.

1. Nala

A 6-year-old Siamese-tabby mix with 3.3 million Instagram followers and huge blue eyes. Oh, and her own online store.

2. Grumpy Cat

One of the original famous cats. It doesn’t take much to annoy her. One glance at her forever-frowning, stone-cold face is enough to inspire memes the world over.

3. Lil Bub

The tiny cat looks permanently like kitten due to dwarfism. That – and the fact that her tongue is always hanging out – makes her an internet darling. Along with having a book and a documentary, she does TV appearances, magazine shoots, and meet and greets.

4. Maru

Maru is the cat that loves boxes. If Maru had a life mantra it would be, “If I fits, I sits.” The Scottish fold cat from Japan is a YouTube sensation with millions of views.

5. Hamilton the Hipster Cat

Hamilton’s gray fur and magnificent white mustache have garnered him nearly 685,000 Instagram followers. Someone get this cat a pair of Warby Parkers.

6. Pudge

An exotic shorthair with a smushed face. She lives in Minneapolis with her human and has a serious social media presence.

7. Snoopy

Another exotic shorthair with giant eyes and a teeny tiny nose. He loves a good hat and is wildly popular, especially in China.

9. Henri

AKA the existential cat. Like any good film noir actor, Henri expresses melancholy, alienation and disillusionment with life. In black and white. With a French voice-over.

9. Sam

The cat with eyebrows was discovered on Reddit and looks perpetually concerned. And also adorable.

This story was originally published March 2, 2017 at 9:07 AM with the headline "The Cat Video Festival is coming to Columbia and it sounds purrfect."