July 16, 2023 • 16 mins
CoolKay of Countyfairground.net interviews Dana Cain who is having Cat Fest Colorado in Colorado Springs at the end of July 2023. check out the website Cat Fest Colorado 2023. This is the first time the event is being held in the springs. Featuring of course cat adoption, a cat bounce house, cat face painting, cat dancers and Egyptian stuff, arts and crafts.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:11):
County filed rounds in cool. Okay, here, Hi, Dana, how's
it going. I hear you're runninga cat fest in Colorado Springs coming up.
I am running a cat fest inColorado Springs coming up. It's going
to be so good. So yeah. So we actually debuted cat Fest in
(00:32):
Denver in November and it was sopopular we we uh it was. It
was so great. We had overfive thousand people show up in a little
six hour window, so it wasit was pretty packed, and it was
(00:55):
just it was wonderful. We foundforever homes for over forty cats and kittens,
and all the all the vendors werehappy, all the customers were happy.
You know, we had our celebritycat guests, all the stage events
were very popular. So I mean, it was just so good and so
(01:19):
fun that I thought, you know, we could take this to the Springs,
to Colorado Springs. So we're doingthe Springs in the summer and Denver
in November, and that's gonna belike our annual schedule now. But the
weird saying, Karen, is thatthe one in the Springs, which I'm
(01:42):
thinking, well, this is alittle bit smaller market, you know.
Blah, blah blah. The vendorboot sales have far exceeded what we got
in Denver, I think because noweverybody sees, oh, this is a
big show. Okay, other catsshow. I haven't run across too many
catchules in the countries. Are thereother ones? Well, there's cat Con
(02:06):
out in LA and cat Con launchedthe same year that I launched the kitten
pavilion at the Denver County Fair.That started from a typo because we had
a kitchen pavilion and a reporter thoughtwe said kitten pavilion, and I'm like,
(02:27):
well, now we've got to dothat. So yeah, So I
had first started doing you know,a similar thing back in twenty fifteen,
I want to say twenty fifteen,and we had back then we had as
our first guest of honor Little bubwho was like one of the great legends
(02:49):
in celebrity cat lore. And butit's kind of expanded from that idea.
So yeah, so in a way, I've been doing cat you know shows
for almost ten years. But okay, so and there's a couple in Canada.
(03:12):
But yeah, but right now there'sreally not there's really no big cat
festivals in the US that I knowof besides cat Fest Colorado and cat Con
in La. This cat Fest isthat we have to tell people what it
is. It's that cat Fest Coloradotwenty twenty three, Saturday, July twenty
ninth, Colorado Springs Event Center fromten am, divism So you're running for
(03:38):
one day, one day, uhhuh. In the future we might expand
it to two. But honestly,those adoption you know, we give up
free booths to adoption agencies and catshelters and they kind of sell out,
so you know, I mean atthe one in ver they had to keep
(04:00):
running back to the shelter to bringout more cats. But we've got for
Colverado Springs we have eight eight adoptionagencies and shelters that are doing on site
adoptions. Oh wow, yeah,so that's good. That's good. What
else is that this cat show besidesthe adoption Okay, I'm so glad you
(04:26):
asked. We have all the catbases covered, all the cat bases covered.
So we've also where there's tons ofcat themed vendors. There's a main
stage where we have a costume contest. We have CaTiO Bob from Georgia.
You know what a CaTiO is aCaTiO is like a little cat patio that
(04:49):
attaches like usually to a window wherethe cats can get outside but not run
away. Right, So Cattio Bobis coming out from Georgia to talk about
the benefits of cattios and like howto build them in stuff. And then
we have oh oh oh, ourbig national headliner. We have the Amazing
(05:13):
Acro Cats, Tuna and the RockCats band. So the Amazing acro Cats,
they were featured on Netflix. Thebig sort of like culmination of their
act is the band, the RockCats, So we just have the We
don't have the full Acro Cats show, but we have the concert with the
(05:35):
band and they're going to perform attwo o'clock and they're also going to be
the Acro Cats have a booth allday long where they're going to be selling
their merch and doing meat and greetswith the cats and the band, so
(05:57):
that is fun. And then andyou know, we have we have our
Cat Trivia, which is always funand we give out prices and stuff.
So that's just some of the stuffhappening on the main stage. And then
we also have some celebrity Instagram catsthat are going to be there. And
we have, Oh, this isone of my favorite things. We have
(06:24):
a mystical Egyptian cat oasis in thisarea. It's all done up Egyptian with
giant eight foot standis of Bastet thecat got us out in front welcoming you
in its o goal. And insidewe have tarot readers and pet psychics and
(06:46):
they're working with cat themed tarot decks. But the highlight of it is we
have our big golden memory wall.It's set up like an Egyptian altar,
and you can go in and writethe name of your cats that have crossed
over, or post their photos andsend them messages. And when I got
(07:13):
the idea, I was like,oh, I love this idea, right
because I just actually had a catthat passed. But I was not prepared
for how popular it is, Karen. I mean, the wall immediately got
filled and we had to put goldpaper like on top of the tables and
just start thinking of how we couldget more room for everybody to honor their
(07:36):
cats that have crossed over. Sothat's one of my favorite things. On
a lighter note, we have theMemorial Lewis Wayne Cat Art Show, so
anybody can come and bring their catArt to set up day on Friday.
Check it in. It's free toenter. The art can be first Dale
(08:01):
and that's gonna be cool. Theone in Denver, we sold forty percent
of the art that was brought in. Was kind of incredible and we had
a lot of you know, firsttime artists who'd never shown and kid art
and a lot of people just seea painting and they're like, oh my
(08:22):
gosh, that looks like my cat, so then they have to have it.
But it's the memorial Lewis Wayne CatArt Show, because if you don't
know who Lewis Wayne is, yougot to google it and watch the movie
on Amazon. Primate stars Benedict cumberBadge as Lewis Wayne. It's the Electrical
(08:46):
Life of Lewis Wayne. And Iwatched that movie and I'm like, I've
got to honor this man. It'sjust incredible. Ned. But we'll have
to go look now, Oh it'sgood. You have a costume contest.
Yes, yes, we have acostume contest. There's tons of cost players,
(09:07):
right, so we have people dressedas cats and tigers and the only
like, but we also have catsin costume. At the Denver show,
the cat that one was dressed likeEddie Munson from Stranger Things and is a
little hell Fire Club T shirt andjean jacket. So yes, we have
(09:31):
a costume contest for people and forcats, and it's wonderful. But another
one of our main attractions, ittakes up like a fourth of the show
or a third of the show,is we have an actual sanctioned cat show
run by TICA, the International CatAssociation. And TICA is cool because they're
(10:00):
not they're not completely you know,like cat snobs. They they also have
they let you show your household pets. They don't have to be purebreads,
which I love. But the coolthing about Fatika Cat Show is people can
(10:22):
get into what they call the benchingarea, and this is like where all
the pure bread cats are just hangingout in their cages waiting to go up
and be judged in the show rings. There's six show rings, right,
but so after you so there's goingto be all these cats up for adoption
(10:46):
in the adoption boots. And thenyou go to the other side and you
can see Bengals and main coons andthere's a thing called a toyger, which
looks exactly like a miniature tiger.I kid you not, so you can
(11:07):
just go over there and see sphinxesand just marvel at all these purebred cats
that are just drop dead gorgeous.So we kind of got both ends,
you know, hey, Dana,Yeah, and you could do all this
stuff and all just a few hours. Why why aren't you running for at
least two days? Well we mightget there, you know, like,
this is already longer than the onein Denver. In Denver, you know,
(11:31):
because it was in the winter,you know, well it was in
the fall. But um, youknow, we just did at eleven to
five. At this one, we'redoing it ten to five. So it's
longer than Denver, and we're youknow, we're still it's still year one.
So if it grows enough to betwo days, we'll do it two
(11:52):
days. But like I said,it's a little harder on the cats going
out there for two days, andshelters might run out of cats because there's
long lines at those adoption booths.You know, everybody's scrambling for that calico
kitten kind of thing. So Ithink you have a kitty bounce house.
(12:18):
Yes, I just added that thisweek. Yes, we've got a hello,
Kitty Bounce House. Because I waslike, you know, we originally
we were just renting Hall A atthe Convention Center and I was trying to
map it and I'm like, we'realready sold out. It's already too full.
(12:41):
I can't you know, I can'thave ten foot aisles at this show
because that's yeah, my shows tendto be crowded, so we need fifteen
to twenty foot aisles. So Irented Hall B. So now we've got
both sides. We've got the entireconvention Center, and that allowed us to
spread out. And then I'm like, hey, I can fit in a
(13:05):
bounce house. I wonder if theyhave anything cat samed And then I'm like,
oh, hello kitty okay, yeah, and you have Kitty krafts.
Yes. Yes. So Creation Stationis it's a really popular attraction at a
lot of my events, and it'srun by Carol Angel and it's free.
(13:31):
All this stuff that I'm talking aboutis all included with admission, right,
But you can go to Creation Stationand make a cat toy or make a
cat mask. Most people want tomake, you know, cat toys,
and they're kind of easy to make, and you just it's fun and you
get to decorate them and make them. It's fun. And then you also
(13:52):
have cat face painting, yes,also included with admission, also very popular.
Her. Yeah, the thing iseverything's included with admission, except for
like the Charol readings and the petpsychics, but like everything else, all
the stage entertainment, all the costumecontests, you know, walking around at
(14:13):
Tica cat Show, the brought Catsin concert, the concert performance. Everything's
included with admission. And admission isit's twenty dollars or you can get a
family four pack for sixty nine dollars. Okay, So where do people give
(14:35):
these tickets? At Catfest? CEOfor Colorado cat Fest co dot com.
So, so, do you haveany idea how many tickets you sold for
testest? Well, for this oneso far, I really don't have account.
We're just now starting our media blitz. I you know, I just
(14:56):
sent out the press release and I'mstarting to get calls from the TV stations
and the Colorado Springs Gazette. Theylook like they're about on pace with Denver.
So, like I said, inDenver, we had over five thousand
people. I would be shocked ifwe got that mini in Colorado Springs because
(15:16):
it is a smaller market. Buta lot of people say they're going from
Denver down there. They're like,oh, I love the one in Denver.
I can't wait for the one inthe Springs. Cat people, you
know, Karen, they are theyare crazy. They are dedicated cat people.
Are they just They're amazing? Ofcourse I'm one of them. Yeah,
(15:39):
one of my cats. Jeepers liveto be twenty three. How many
vendors you got at this show,dear, Oh my gosh, let's see,
I don't have a I don't havean absolute count. I should have
had the count. The whole listis on the website. I think at
this point we've got about six dfive. Well, here's what I want
(16:03):
from you. I want you tomake this a two day show and an
increase. All right, we're workingon it. Like I said, you
know, it's like a lot oftimes you start out as a one day
kind of let word get around,and then when you're sure, you expand
to that second day. Okay,thank you, Dana, and all right,
all right, thanks a bunch,Bye bye bye.
County filed rounds in cool. Okay, here, Hi, Dana, how's
it going. I hear you're runninga cat fest in Colorado Springs coming up.
I am running a cat fest inColorado Springs coming up. It's going
to be so good. So yeah. So we actually debuted cat Fest in
(00:32):
Denver in November and it was sopopular we we uh it was. It
was so great. We had overfive thousand people show up in a little
six hour window, so it wasit was pretty packed, and it was
(00:55):
just it was wonderful. We foundforever homes for over forty cats and kittens,
and all the all the vendors werehappy, all the customers were happy.
You know, we had our celebritycat guests, all the stage events
were very popular. So I mean, it was just so good and so
(01:19):
fun that I thought, you know, we could take this to the Springs,
to Colorado Springs. So we're doingthe Springs in the summer and Denver
in November, and that's gonna belike our annual schedule now. But the
weird saying, Karen, is thatthe one in the Springs, which I'm
(01:42):
thinking, well, this is alittle bit smaller market, you know.
Blah, blah blah. The vendorboot sales have far exceeded what we got
in Denver, I think because noweverybody sees, oh, this is a
big show. Okay, other catsshow. I haven't run across too many
catchules in the countries. Are thereother ones? Well, there's cat Con
(02:06):
out in LA and cat Con launchedthe same year that I launched the kitten
pavilion at the Denver County Fair.That started from a typo because we had
a kitchen pavilion and a reporter thoughtwe said kitten pavilion, and I'm like,
(02:27):
well, now we've got to dothat. So yeah, So I
had first started doing you know,a similar thing back in twenty fifteen,
I want to say twenty fifteen,and we had back then we had as
our first guest of honor Little bubwho was like one of the great legends
(02:49):
in celebrity cat lore. And butit's kind of expanded from that idea.
So yeah, so in a way, I've been doing cat you know shows
for almost ten years. But okay, so and there's a couple in Canada.
(03:12):
But yeah, but right now there'sreally not there's really no big cat
festivals in the US that I knowof besides cat Fest Colorado and cat Con
in La. This cat Fest isthat we have to tell people what it
is. It's that cat Fest Coloradotwenty twenty three, Saturday, July twenty
ninth, Colorado Springs Event Center fromten am, divism So you're running for
(03:38):
one day, one day, uhhuh. In the future we might expand
it to two. But honestly,those adoption you know, we give up
free booths to adoption agencies and catshelters and they kind of sell out,
so you know, I mean atthe one in ver they had to keep
(04:00):
running back to the shelter to bringout more cats. But we've got for
Colverado Springs we have eight eight adoptionagencies and shelters that are doing on site
adoptions. Oh wow, yeah,so that's good. That's good. What
else is that this cat show besidesthe adoption Okay, I'm so glad you
(04:26):
asked. We have all the catbases covered, all the cat bases covered.
So we've also where there's tons ofcat themed vendors. There's a main
stage where we have a costume contest. We have CaTiO Bob from Georgia.
You know what a CaTiO is aCaTiO is like a little cat patio that
(04:49):
attaches like usually to a window wherethe cats can get outside but not run
away. Right, So Cattio Bobis coming out from Georgia to talk about
the benefits of cattios and like howto build them in stuff. And then
we have oh oh oh, ourbig national headliner. We have the Amazing
(05:13):
Acro Cats, Tuna and the RockCats band. So the Amazing acro Cats,
they were featured on Netflix. Thebig sort of like culmination of their
act is the band, the RockCats, So we just have the We
don't have the full Acro Cats show, but we have the concert with the
(05:35):
band and they're going to perform attwo o'clock and they're also going to be
the Acro Cats have a booth allday long where they're going to be selling
their merch and doing meat and greetswith the cats and the band, so
(05:57):
that is fun. And then andyou know, we have we have our
Cat Trivia, which is always funand we give out prices and stuff.
So that's just some of the stuffhappening on the main stage. And then
we also have some celebrity Instagram catsthat are going to be there. And
we have, Oh, this isone of my favorite things. We have
(06:24):
a mystical Egyptian cat oasis in thisarea. It's all done up Egyptian with
giant eight foot standis of Bastet thecat got us out in front welcoming you
in its o goal. And insidewe have tarot readers and pet psychics and
(06:46):
they're working with cat themed tarot decks. But the highlight of it is we
have our big golden memory wall.It's set up like an Egyptian altar,
and you can go in and writethe name of your cats that have crossed
over, or post their photos andsend them messages. And when I got
(07:13):
the idea, I was like,oh, I love this idea, right
because I just actually had a catthat passed. But I was not prepared
for how popular it is, Karen. I mean, the wall immediately got
filled and we had to put goldpaper like on top of the tables and
just start thinking of how we couldget more room for everybody to honor their
(07:36):
cats that have crossed over. Sothat's one of my favorite things. On
a lighter note, we have theMemorial Lewis Wayne Cat Art Show, so
anybody can come and bring their catArt to set up day on Friday.
Check it in. It's free toenter. The art can be first Dale
(08:01):
and that's gonna be cool. Theone in Denver, we sold forty percent
of the art that was brought in. Was kind of incredible and we had
a lot of you know, firsttime artists who'd never shown and kid art
and a lot of people just seea painting and they're like, oh my
(08:22):
gosh, that looks like my cat, so then they have to have it.
But it's the memorial Lewis Wayne CatArt Show, because if you don't
know who Lewis Wayne is, yougot to google it and watch the movie
on Amazon. Primate stars Benedict cumberBadge as Lewis Wayne. It's the Electrical
(08:46):
Life of Lewis Wayne. And Iwatched that movie and I'm like, I've
got to honor this man. It'sjust incredible. Ned. But we'll have
to go look now, Oh it'sgood. You have a costume contest.
Yes, yes, we have acostume contest. There's tons of cost players,
(09:07):
right, so we have people dressedas cats and tigers and the only
like, but we also have catsin costume. At the Denver show,
the cat that one was dressed likeEddie Munson from Stranger Things and is a
little hell Fire Club T shirt andjean jacket. So yes, we have
(09:31):
a costume contest for people and forcats, and it's wonderful. But another
one of our main attractions, ittakes up like a fourth of the show
or a third of the show,is we have an actual sanctioned cat show
run by TICA, the International CatAssociation. And TICA is cool because they're
(10:00):
not they're not completely you know,like cat snobs. They they also have
they let you show your household pets. They don't have to be purebreads,
which I love. But the coolthing about Fatika Cat Show is people can
(10:22):
get into what they call the benchingarea, and this is like where all
the pure bread cats are just hangingout in their cages waiting to go up
and be judged in the show rings. There's six show rings, right,
but so after you so there's goingto be all these cats up for adoption
(10:46):
in the adoption boots. And thenyou go to the other side and you
can see Bengals and main coons andthere's a thing called a toyger, which
looks exactly like a miniature tiger.I kid you not, so you can
(11:07):
just go over there and see sphinxesand just marvel at all these purebred cats
that are just drop dead gorgeous.So we kind of got both ends,
you know, hey, Dana,Yeah, and you could do all this
stuff and all just a few hours. Why why aren't you running for at
least two days? Well we mightget there, you know, like,
this is already longer than the onein Denver. In Denver, you know,
(11:31):
because it was in the winter,you know, well it was in
the fall. But um, youknow, we just did at eleven to
five. At this one, we'redoing it ten to five. So it's
longer than Denver, and we're youknow, we're still it's still year one.
So if it grows enough to betwo days, we'll do it two
(11:52):
days. But like I said,it's a little harder on the cats going
out there for two days, andshelters might run out of cats because there's
long lines at those adoption booths.You know, everybody's scrambling for that calico
kitten kind of thing. So Ithink you have a kitty bounce house.
(12:18):
Yes, I just added that thisweek. Yes, we've got a hello,
Kitty Bounce House. Because I waslike, you know, we originally
we were just renting Hall A atthe Convention Center and I was trying to
map it and I'm like, we'realready sold out. It's already too full.
(12:41):
I can't you know, I can'thave ten foot aisles at this show
because that's yeah, my shows tendto be crowded, so we need fifteen
to twenty foot aisles. So Irented Hall B. So now we've got
both sides. We've got the entireconvention Center, and that allowed us to
spread out. And then I'm like, hey, I can fit in a
(13:05):
bounce house. I wonder if theyhave anything cat samed And then I'm like,
oh, hello kitty okay, yeah, and you have Kitty krafts.
Yes. Yes. So Creation Stationis it's a really popular attraction at a
lot of my events, and it'srun by Carol Angel and it's free.
(13:31):
All this stuff that I'm talking aboutis all included with admission, right,
But you can go to Creation Stationand make a cat toy or make a
cat mask. Most people want tomake, you know, cat toys,
and they're kind of easy to make, and you just it's fun and you
get to decorate them and make them. It's fun. And then you also
(13:52):
have cat face painting, yes,also included with admission, also very popular.
Her. Yeah, the thing iseverything's included with admission, except for
like the Charol readings and the petpsychics, but like everything else, all
the stage entertainment, all the costumecontests, you know, walking around at
(14:13):
Tica cat Show, the brought Catsin concert, the concert performance. Everything's
included with admission. And admission isit's twenty dollars or you can get a
family four pack for sixty nine dollars. Okay, So where do people give
(14:35):
these tickets? At Catfest? CEOfor Colorado cat Fest co dot com.
So, so, do you haveany idea how many tickets you sold for
testest? Well, for this oneso far, I really don't have account.
We're just now starting our media blitz. I you know, I just
(14:56):
sent out the press release and I'mstarting to get calls from the TV stations
and the Colorado Springs Gazette. Theylook like they're about on pace with Denver.
So, like I said, inDenver, we had over five thousand
people. I would be shocked ifwe got that mini in Colorado Springs because
(15:16):
it is a smaller market. Buta lot of people say they're going from
Denver down there. They're like,oh, I love the one in Denver.
I can't wait for the one inthe Springs. Cat people, you
know, Karen, they are theyare crazy. They are dedicated cat people.
Are they just They're amazing? Ofcourse I'm one of them. Yeah,
(15:39):
one of my cats. Jeepers liveto be twenty three. How many
vendors you got at this show,dear, Oh my gosh, let's see,
I don't have a I don't havean absolute count. I should have
had the count. The whole listis on the website. I think at
this point we've got about six dfive. Well, here's what I want
(16:03):
from you. I want you tomake this a two day show and an
increase. All right, we're workingon it. Like I said, you
know, it's like a lot oftimes you start out as a one day
kind of let word get around,and then when you're sure, you expand
to that second day. Okay,thank you, Dana, and all right,
all right, thanks a bunch,Bye bye bye.
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