The second annual Calgary Cat Festival and Market will happen on Friday and Saturday on the Telus Convention Centre with new displays and visitors, together with a chat with Mark Simon Hewis, head of the famed UK stop-motion animation firm Aardman Studio.
The occasion options 32 distributors and a mixture of businesses and rescue organization cubicles.
A brand new present this 12 months additionally options cat-themed artwork items. June Wong, the occasion coordinator, says the present consists of 70 artworks and items of pictures that folks will actually get pleasure from.
Matthew Swann, a neighborhood musician, will likely be enlivening the conference centre with an acoustic efficiency.
There will even be a presentation centering round a brand new program referred to as Little Free Fibre Library, a donation centre for gently used fiber craft instruments, gear, books, yarn, or thread and the creation of a neighborhood knitting hub. The libraries may have gently used or model new books which can be donated. Wong has partnered with a number of senior residents for this challenge and is hoping to open 20 new libraries for the residents.
Gail Ellis, a senior and pro-knitter, will likely be instructing attendees find out how to knit a cat-themed merchandise. Wong could be very captivated with this explicit function.
“We believe that that’s crucial to our mission statement to go back to that DIY space, create beautiful cat-themed cards and to share it with others,” she says.
One of the important thing options of the pageant, whose whole mission revolves round serving to cat rescues, will likely be a straightforward cat adoption system that organizers have put in place. QR codes will likely be displayed within the foyer on the occasion, letting visitors uncover the cats or kittens for adoption.
Wong says that as a result of cats are delicate to noise, this method will hold the animals protected and make it a straightforward and pleasant expertise for anybody seeking to undertake.
Looking to broaden
Wong began the pageant final 12 months due to a grant she acquired from the Calgary Downtown Association. Now she is hoping to see a rise in attendance numbers in comparison with final 12 months, when the pageant first launched. She says that final 12 months she heard from many individuals who needed to attend however all of the tickets had been offered out.
“That is our goal,” she says. “To hopefully expand on the festival and make it bigger and better and, most importantly, to support our local rescues.”
Wong is hoping that the pageant can proceed to develop in its programming and fanbase. She says she might even supply pop up cat festivals at totally different instances of the 12 months, resembling a Christmas market.
