Perth Voice Interactive

THE virtual world is leaking into real life again, with the Internet Cat Video Festival making its way to the Northbridge Piazza.

Internet videos of cats doing awesome things like jumping into fishbowls and attacking their reflections had their genesis in a cat called Fatso playing a keyboard, whose video was uploaded to YouTube in 2007.

Since then, the world has gone batshit nuts for internet cats. The owners of Facebook sensation Grumpy Cat, for example, are multi-millionaires on the back of advertising and merchandising deals.

Now, the Shenton Park-based Cat Haven and Perth city council are holding a free film festival celebrating internet cats, featuring 85 of what they judge to be the best clips, ranging from six-second clips to short films.

The first Internet Cat Video Festival was held in Minneapolis in 2012, and since then it’s spread to more than two dozen cities.

Here in Perth there’ll also be a kitten-cuddling area and punters can hear about adopting cats from Cat Haven (currently full to bursting). The haven especially needs people to adopt cats with ringworm (it’s treatable and Cat Haven provides the medication but the kitties need to be kept from other cats during treatment).

It’s on January 17 at the Northbridge Piazza (corner James and Lake Street) with a kids’ movie at 5.30pm then the cat movies kicking off at 7pm. Kitty dress ups are encouraged but don’t bring booze or your own cat, it’ll freak out and that won’t make for a funny video if it makes a dash across a busy road.

by DAVID BELL