‘Kittydelphia’ hits Northern Liberties
Ambler’s Laura Kicey organizes cat-themed event in the city
Ambler resident Laura Kicey organizes cat-themed, pop-up shop event in the city.
PHILADELPHIA » Ambler may be home to the everpopular “Dog Days of Summer” canine parade, but borough resident Laura Kicey is clearly more of a cat person.
During the second weekend of July, Kicey will be holding the inaugural “Kittydelphia,” which is essentially a three-day, allthings-cats, pop-up shop event in the city.
Fit for anyone who fancies felines, “Kittydelphia,” which runs July 7-9 at Gravy Studios in Northern Liberties, will include a host of catthemed vendors, assorted raffles, and even some special appearances by quirky, internetfamous cats with names like Turbo Two Legs and Miss Raspberry Kittay.
Among the vendors selling their wares at the event will be Xenotees, which specializes in screen-printing; Polydactyl Cats, which offers handmade, whimsical cat toys; Cherished Paws Gems; and Kicey’s own Olive and Rye Cat Art, which sells custom digital cat portraits.
While space at Gravy Studios is limited (with a roughly 75-person capacity), Kicey says overflow crowds are welcome to stop in at the nearby Kawaii Cat Cafe — which, coincidentally, is owned by former Ambler resident Kristin Eissler — for coffee, food, and (reservations only) cat mingling.
“I’m trying to walk this line of getting people excited and also not over-selling” the event, Kicey says, explaining the scale of “Kittydelphia” is on the small side “for being a maiden voyage.”
However, if all goes well this year, she’s open to the idea of “Kittydelphia” becoming a recurring event that grows over time — something of an East Coast “Cat Con” writ small.
In fact, “Cat Con” in large part inspired “Kittydelphia.” Kicey has attended the Pasadena, Calif.-based convention several times in recent years, as both a visitor and a vendor. Eventually, she realized that, outside of this one annual convention, there’s a conspicuous dearth of cat-specific events throughout the country: “Like, ‘Cat Con’ is it. There’s pet expos, but they’re generally dogcentric.” Seeing opportunity, she got to work.
And while the first-time event organizer admits the planning process has been slightly “terrifying,” bringing “Kittydelphia” to fruition has probably been easier for Kicey than it would be for most people.
After all, Kicey is the proud parent of two “mid-level celebrity cats” — Olive and Rye — who have a fanbase of nearly 100K followers on Instagram. Tapping into that community was a useful first step in the planning process.
“It all goes back to Instagram,” she says. “The ‘Cats of Instagram’ community just drew me in.” Many of the vendors involved in “Kittydelphia” first connected with Kicey through Olive and Rye, she says.
Asked about the oddity of owning two internet-famous cats, Kicey says, “I’m OK with it. I have, like, 1,200 followers on my human Instagram account — it’s nothing compared to them! It’s fun, but it’s also work for me. It’s business. I am the social media manager.”
But there are plenty of personal advantages to owning famous cats, she says. With such a sizeable audience on social media, Kicey can promote her own artwork, as well as market for “Kittydelphia,” directly to Olive and Rye’s many online admirers: “They have the most visibility!”
(It should be noted here that Olive and Rye will sadly not be attending “Kittydelphia,” as they are slightly crowd shy.)
Details for “Kittydelphia” are still coming together, so anyone interested in checking out the event should keep an eye on its website as well as its Facebook page for updates on vendors and schedules for famouscat appearances.
The event is free to enter, but there is a suggested donation of $5 toward Philly PAWS, a donor-funded, no-kill shelter in the city. Kicey also stresses that this is an event for people.
“Strictly no extraneous cats,” she says.