Full disclosure: I’m (tangentially) affiliated with what I’m writing about today, but it’s significant enough to the St. Paul arts-and-culture scene that I’m going to mention it anyway. The Walker’s hugely popular Internet Cat Video Festival (a.k.a. #catvidfest) is returning for a second year, and the festivities will be held at the Minnesota State Fair Grandstand on August 28th. Tickets went on sale last week, beginning March 9; seats are $10 each and going quickly.

You remember hearing about this unexpectedly viral event last summer, I’m sure. The large green hill alongside the Walker Art Center drew massive crowds (and snarled traffic for blocks all around) on a late August night last year: More than 10,000 people gathered for the sake of watching a crowdsourced (then edited and carefully produced) playlist of online, amateur-made cat video clips. Local folks came in droves, of course, but there were also many, many people who flew in from far away to attend – cat-lovers and curiosity seekers, people accompanied by cats and dressed as cats; people who aspired, themselves, to be cats.

Internet Cat Video Festival, August 2012. Photo courtesy of the Walker Art Center

Permanently kittenish Lil Bub was there, as was the mordant Henri and a pride of other Internet-famous felines. I remember someone on Twitter called it “the new Burning Man.” And indeed, I suspect many in that gathered crowd may have, at first, come for the irony of the thing, but I can’t imagine the jaded soul who walked away unmoved by the genuine enthusiasm and infectious expansiveness – the sheer joy – that charmed the evening.

The first annual cat video festival garnered a front-page article in the New York Times and was covered by global news media for months before and after —in print, broadcast and online stories for Slate and Jezebel, The Guardian newspaper and a host of other outlets, mainstream and niche alike. My colleagues at mnartists.org and the Walker, Scott Stulen and Katie Hill, both connoisseurs of the cat video form, first conceived of #catvidfest as a smallish, one-off gathering, an experiment in translating the private novelty of sharing and watching silly/cute/funny/clever cat videos, alone at one’s desk, into a more communal experience. In an interview on the Walker’s website, Stulen says, “I thought it would be Katie Hill [co-organizer of the event] and [me] on a laptop and 50 people outside watching a projection on the white wall — basically Walker staff and friends sitting around with a case of beer and that would be the end of it.”

Hardly. #catvidfest surprised us all by turning into a full-blown phenomenon. Since it was posted last summer, the official #catvidfest YouTube playlist  has been watched more than 955,000 times. It’s since evolved into a nationally touring program as well, with spin-off events in Memphis, Boston, San Diego, Auburn, New York and just last week, SXSW Interactive in Austin.

I can’t pretend to be impartial, but here’s the thing: The second annual, State Fair-edition of #catvidfest really is going to be pretty great. There will be another crowdsourced-and-curated selection of cat videos, of course, as well as appearances by guest celebri-cats; a Golden Kitty Award will once again be bestowed upon the popular-choice grand champion cat clip. And this year, the night will culminate in a grand fireworks display.  Sounds fun, doesn’t it?

Internet Cat Video Festival, August 2012. Photo courtesy of the Walker Art Center

The Second Annual Internet Cat Video Festival, presented by the Walker Art Center, is scheduled for August 28, 2013 at 7 p.m. in the Minnesota State Fair Grandstand on the fairgrounds, 1265 N. Snelling Ave., St. Paul. Tickets are now available for purchase online or by phone (800-514-3849); the Minnesota State Fair box office, where you can buy tickets in person, will open in June. Tickets are $10 each (not including the price of general admission to the fair). A word of advice: Given the turnout and hoopla surrounding last year’s event, it’s probably prudent to book your spot early if you plan to go.

Have some favorite cat videos of your own? The call for entries is officially open and will run through May 1. To be eligible for consideration, clips must be publicly viewable on Vimeo or YouTube. The 2013 #catvidfest nomination form is now online.

For more information: http://www.walkerart.org/calendar/2013/internet-cat-video-festival-2