The Great Cat Festivals of the World
Parades of giant cats in Belgium, painted whiskers in Tokyo, lucky beckoning cats in Ise, and a harvest thanksgiving for barn cats in the North Carolina Piedmont. These are the cat festivals, old and new, that every cat lover should know.
Upcoming cat festivals
The next dates for the world's recurring cat festivals and cat days, soonest first. Always confirm with the organizers before you travel.
Great Cat Festivals: our top 10
We ranked these on history, character, and how much the cat is truly at the center of the day. Some are huge city events; some are small and local; one ended more than two thousand years ago. All of them are worth knowing about.
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No.1
Kattenstoet (Festival of the Cats)
The most famous cat festival on earth. Ypres (Ieper) turns its grim medieval custom of throwing cats from the belfry of the Cloth Hall into a huge costumed parade about the history of the cat, complete with giant cat figures known as Cieper and Minneke Poes. The day ends with a jester tossing toy cats from the belfry into the waiting crowd, which is now a much happier tradition than the original.
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No.2
Nottatown Cat Worship Festival
The Nottatown Cat Worship Festival is a harvest festival honoring barn cats, held in Nottatown, North Carolina, on the third Saturday of every October. It has been held every October since 1855 and is one of the oldest continuous cat festivals in the United States.
Nottatown is a small farming town in Caswell County with a population of 42. The festival gives thanks to the barn cats that saved the town's seed corn during the Rat Winter of 1853–54. The Great Saucer is filled with fresh milk, farm families parade their cats down Nott's Mill Road, and a Mouser Laureate is crowned with a straw crown.
The festival was once much bigger and drew about 11,000 visitors in 1956. Today it draws about 400 to 600.
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No.3
Festival of Bastet at Bubastis
The original great cat festival. The Greek historian Herodotus wrote in the 5th century BC that crowds sailed to Bubastis, the cult center of the cat goddess Bastet, singing and clapping along the way. He claimed that hundreds of thousands of people attended and that more wine was drunk there than in the rest of the year.
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No.4
Kagurazaka Bakeneko Festival
In the old lanes of Tokyo's Kagurazaka district, participants paint on whiskers and dress as bakeneko, the shape-shifting cats of Japanese folklore, and parade through the neighborhood. It is playful, photogenic, and open to anyone willing to wear the ears.
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No.5
Kuru Kuru Maneki Neko Matsuri
Held near the Ise Grand Shrine around September 29, which Japan celebrates as Maneki Neko Day. The shopping streets fill with beckoning-cat figures of every size, cat crafts, and visitors in cat face paint.
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No.6
Seto Maneki Neko Festival
Seto is one of Japan's historic pottery towns and has long produced ceramic maneki-neko. Its festival, held around Maneki Neko Day, celebrates the beckoning cat with ceramics, exhibits, and cat-themed events around town.
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No.7
Internet Cat Video Festival
In 2012 the Walker Art Center screened a program of cat videos on its lawn and around 10,000 people showed up. The first Golden Kitty award went to Henri 2, Paw de Deux. The festival later toured other cities and proved that the internet's favorite animal could fill a real field.
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No.8
CatCon
A pop-culture convention for cat people, with vendors, panels, artists, adoption groups, and famous internet cats. It began in Los Angeles in 2015 and has since been held at the Pasadena Convention Center.
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No.9
Cat Day in Japan (Neko no Hi)
February 22 was chosen because 2-2-2 can be read as nyan nyan nyan, the Japanese “meow.” Established in 1987, it is marked with cat cafe events, special merchandise, and a flood of cat photos.
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No.10
International Cat Day
Created in 2002 by the International Fund for Animal Welfare and now led by the charity International Cat Care, International Cat Day is the global excuse to celebrate cats and raise awareness of their welfare.
Honorable mentions
National Cat Day (US)
October 29. Founded in 2005 by animal welfare advocate Colleen Paige to encourage cat adoption. Nottatown fans get a double October.
Maneki Neko Day
September 29 in Japan, a date whose numbers can be read as a pun on “good fortune coming.” It is the anchor for the festivals in Ise and Seto.
Where to start
New to the subject? Read our pages on historical festivals and modern festivals, then plan a year with the calendar.