Felines and humans alike rejoiced Sunday at the National Western Complex in Denver for the third annual Cat Fest.

Whether one was looking to adopt, pet some kittens, compete or buy some cat products – Cat Fest offered everything for the everyday cat enthusiast. Thousands packed into the National Western Complex   complex this weekend.

Denver’s Cat Fest is the vision of Colorado event planner Dana Cain, the same director for the Cat Fest hosted in July in Colorado Springs.

When walking around the Ccomplex Sunday, Cain looked around at the cat food vendors and competition cats, telling The Denver Gazette “What’s not to love?”

With a festival dedicated to felines, she said, “I felt like I could really do a cat fest that really hit all the bases, you know, of like, what it means to be a cat.”

Cat Fest features a marketplace for both cats and owners, competitions for different breeds and hair lengths, cat adoptions, mascots, video cat café, food fenders and activities. A special guest included Moshow the Cat Rapper.

Another feature of Cat Fest is the memory wall, where owners can create a tribute and write to cats who have passed on.

“With the memory wall, where people pay tribute to their cats who have crossed over, it’s very powerful. So that’s part of the cat mythos. Of course, we’ve got the cat video café because you can’t do cats without making fun of them.

“You got to worship them on one hand and make fun of them on the other,” Cain added.

Since its inception in 2022, Cat Fest has helped adopt hundreds of cats of all types. Between the Colorado Springs and Denver events, Cat Fest Colorado has helped adopt 218 cats within the first two years.

It is currently unclear how many cats were adopted this past weekend.

“It’s one of the things that’s bringing people together, which has not been happening much this week,” Cain said.

Cain’s next event is the Denver Dog Fair in two weeks at the Arapahoe County Fairgrounds.