12:00-4:00PM: General Admission Hours
11:00AM-12:00PM: VIP Ticket Early Access!

Baltimore KittyCon, presented by Cat Hospital At Towson (CHAT), is a cat-lover convention hosted by BARCS featuring adoptable cats, local vendors, interactive activities, learning labs, contests, crafting, food, drinks, and plenty of feline-inspired fun. It’s part cat festival, part community event, and part excuse to spend an entire afternoon surrounded by people who understand why your precious lil’ dumpster gremlin—ahem, cat… has a dozen nicknames 10 inside-joke layers deep.

Whether you’re a lifelong cat person or just here for the vibes, KittyCon is a fun-filled day that supports homeless animals in Baltimore!

meow mrrp nyaaaa nyoom yowl mrao maow bwep blep meep chirp prrrt birrp eekekekek ack-ack-ack reeeow honk psspsspss bap skree nyeh purrrrr waaaaoow

meow mrrp nyaaaa nyoom yowl mrao maow bwep blep meep chirp prrrt birrp eekekekek ack-ack-ack reeeow honk psspsspss bap skree nyeh purrrrr waaaaoow

The Hisstory:

KittyCon started as a small, cat-centered event created by BARCS to celebrate cat culture while raising support for homeless animals in Baltimore. And Baltimore’s response was loud and clear: people here LOVE cats.

The first two years sold out, bringing together a few hundred cat lovers, local makers, adopters, artists, and rescue supporters for a fun, weird, whisker-filled day that quickly became one of our favorite events of the year. Now heading into year three, we’re making biscuits and preparing for a much bigger KittyCon experience!

The following tickets are for Sunday's main KittyCon event. Be sure to scroll down for details on each ticket level, plus information about our Saturday lead-up events, including the Whiskers & Windows Neighborhood Cat Tour.

VIP (Very Important Pspsps): $60

General Admission Adult: $20

General Admission Child: $10
Ages 12 and under!

*Plus processing fees!

Get Your Tickets!

Ticket Type Details:

  • Very Important Pspspsps (VIP)

    11:00AM-12:00PM: VIP Extra Hours Early Access
    12:00PM-4:00PM: Regular Event Hours

    Enjoy the purrks! Get first dibs on everything with one hour of early admission, before the crowds arrive. Your VIP ticket also includes a limited edition KittyCon T-shirt, a collectible custom kitty credential and lanyard, plus one workshop of your choice—already included with your ticket (sign up for workshops will open mid-August).

  • 12:00PM-4:00PM

    Your ticket includes admission to the event and your official KittyCon credential. Spend the day exploring vendors, meeting adoptable cats, watching presentations, making crafts, and enjoying all the feline festivities.

    Want even more? T-shirts, workshops, and other special experiences are available for additional purchase, à la carte.

  • For our lil’ future rescuers! Kids tickets include admission to KittyCon and an official event credential. Explore all the fun alongside your favorite grown-up, then customize your day with optional workshops, shirts, and other special experiences available for purchase.

  • KittyCon may be on Sunday, but we’re kicking off Baltimore’s biggest cat-centric weekend a day early with the first-ever Whiskers & Windows on Caturday, Saturday, August 29! Ride through the city aboard the Maryland Double Decker Bus to see local cats showing off from decorated windows, or sign up for the chance to have your own window cat featured along the route. Scroll down for full details about bus tour tickets, the self-guided neighborhood cat map, and how to participate with your feline family members.

Sunday Vendors & Guests

Caturday:

Whiskers & Windows Cat Tour

KittyCon may be on Sunday, but we’re kicking off Baltimore’s biggest cat-centric weekend a day early with the first-ever Whiskers & Windows on Caturday (Saturday, August 29, 2026)! Hop aboard the Maryland Double Decker Bus to see local cats showing off from decorated windows across the city. Explore the sections below to purchase tour tickets or apply to feature your home and feline family members along the route.

  • Kick off KittyCon weekend in the most Baltimore way possible — with cats in windows and a ride through the city aboard the Maryland Double Decker Bus!

    BARCS and the Maryland Double Decker Bus are proud to purrsent the very first Whiskers & Windows on Caturday, the eve of KittyCon. Hop aboard an open-top double decker bus and cruise through Baltimore neighborhoods where cat-loving residents are teaming up to decorate their homes and proudly showcase their feline friends lounging, posing, judging, and people-watching from their windows.

    Think twinkle lights, themed decorations, neighborhood pride, and dozens of local cats serving main character energy from the comfort of their homes. It’s part sightseeing tour, part neighborhood celebration, and fully a love letter to Baltimore’s cat people.

    Tours will depart from and return to Pickett Brewing Company in Pigtown. Guests are encouraged to arrive early for check-in, drinks, and pre-tour mingling before boarding begins.

    Tour Schedule:
    • Check-In: 11:00 AM | Tour: 11:30 AM–12:30 PM
    • Check-In: 12:30 PM | Tour: 1:00 PM–2:00 PM
    • Check-In: 2:00 PM | Tour: 2:30 PM–3:30 PM

    Ticket Pricing:
    • Upper Open-Air Deck: $40
    • Lower Level Seating: $30

    Seats are limited and expected to sell quickly. Whether you’re a devoted cat person, a Baltimore enthusiast, or just someone who appreciates wonderfully weird community events, the Whiskers & Window Tour is the purrfect way to begin KittyCon weekend.

  • Sign up for the chance to have your home and feline family members featured along the official Whiskers & Windows double-decker bus tour route on Saturday, August 29. BARCS is currently mapping the route, and participating bus-tour stops will be selected based on location and proximity to other registered window cats so we can create a fun route with plenty of cats to see.

    Even if your home is not included on the official bus route, every registered window cat will be added to the public Whiskers & Windows neighborhood map. Cat lovers can use this free, self-guided map to discover fantastic felines in their own neighborhoods or plan their own window-cat adventure across Baltimore.

Saturday Bus Tour Tickets
Apply To Be a Kitty Window

Sponsors & Vendors

KittyCon is currently looking for sponsors, vendors, artists, makers, pet businesses, and food trucks interested in being part of this growing event. It’s a chance to connect with a passionate community of animal lovers while helping support BARCS and the nearly 12,000 animals we care for each year.

Interested in getting involved? Don’t wait too long though…these spots tend to disappear faster than a cat whose spidey-senses alerted him that your hand just grabbed the nail clippers from three rooms away.

2026 Sponsor Packet
Vendor Registration

BARCS Purrs Too

When many people think about BARCS, they think about dogs—it is the onomatopoeia in our acronym after all. And much of the public conversation around animal shelters focuses on dogs, especially now, as shelters across the country face historic overcrowding and rising large dog intake. But BARCS purrs too!

Every year, around 5,000 homeless cats come through our shelter doors. Tiny kittens needing foster care. Senior cats needing comfort and medical support. Cats recovering from illness or injury. Cats whose families ran out of options. Cats waiting for someone to choose them. Beyond the sheltering of adoptable cats, BARCS also provides Trap-Neuter-Return and vaccination services to more than 2,000 outdoor community cats each year, while helping thousands more owned cats through accessible medical care and safety net programs designed to keep pets with the families who love them.

Over the last 20 years, BARCS has welcomed well over 100,000 homeless cats through our shelter, while providing lifesaving support to countless more throughout Baltimore City. That’s why we created KittyCon!

It’s a celebration of cats and the people who love them. It’s also an opportunity to shine a light on the enormous amount of feline lifesaving work happening at BARCS every single day. This growing annual event is a fundraiser that helps BARCS continue providing medical care, foster homes, adoption programs, community cat services, and second chances to thousands of cats every year.

And yes, it’s also just really fun: Presentations, crafts, cat art, local makers, authors, one-of-a-kind experiences, adoptable cats, and people proudly arriving—and leaving—covered in cat hair.