Baltimore KittyCon 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!
KittyCon Tickets (Sunday)
VIP (Very Important Pspsps): $60
General Admission Adult: $20
General Admission Child: $10
Ages 12 and under!
Ticket Type Details
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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 Baltimore Window Cat Tour 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 PMTicket Pricing:
• Upper Open-Air Deck: $40
• Lower Level Seating: $30Seats 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 Baltimore Window Cat Tour is the purrfect way to begin KittyCon weekend. text goes here
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.
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.