Edmonton Cat Fest

Tips for a Smooth Virtual Expawrience – May 28 & 29, 2022 Edmonton Cat Festival

Know Before You Virtually “Go” to the Cat Festival Virtual Weekend May 28 & 29, 2022!

Don’t have tickets yet? No worries, you can purrrchase tickets at anytime throughout the virtual pawty, and access replays to all sessions with a Replay Ticket if you couldn’t catch us live! Buy your virtual ticket here.

100% purrceeds from ticket sales in 2022 are donated to Community Cats Edmonton!

To access the virtual festival, click below:

2022 Edmonton Cat Festival May 28 & 30, 2022

Make sure you are logged in (or log in) with the email address you registered with.
If you see a screen that looks like the screenshot image above (the cat with computer, a countdown, the festival title, and access to the chat box, then you are logged in successfully!)
If you do not see the screen above, then you have not yet logged in via email or you have not yet purrchased a ticket. You can click to purchase a ticket (add 20 the field and hit Register) or you can click to sign in with your email, and if you have registered with that email, you will be able to see the screen above.

Depending on if you have not yet purrchased tickets, or you’ve logged out of the Crowdcast system, you may need to register or click Sign back in, to sign back in and return to the festival streaming page.

For the best possible experience, watch the festival programming with a computer or laptop.

Click this link to see information about compatible Internet browsers

Note: You can also access THE festival stream from your phone (iPhone or Android) but the view and engagement opportunities (chat, polls, questions) are just a bit harder to navigate on phone.

If you would like to use your phone, you can download the free Crowdcast Mobile app on iPhone and open the link within the app, or on Android, open the link from your Android phone web browser. Click here for more information about accessing from a mobile device.

But we do recommend you watch from a computer / laptop with a fuller screen to get the best experience!

How do you review the festival schedule and switch between sessions?

You can find a static version of the festival by clicking here.

To access the festival schedule and toggle between sessions LIVE FROM A COMPUTER, click the “SCHEDULE” text located underneath the 2022 Edmonton Cat Festival (May 28 &29) title. This reveals a dropdown menu listing all sessions (see screenshot above).

We’ve put together quite a jam-packed schedule for two days of back-to-back and simultaneous cat-themed PURR-gramming so you’ll want to reference the drop-down schedule on the livestream page to go back and forth between sessions.

When one session ends, you’ll need to click into another session.

You will see you can choose from sessions that start at various times. There are multiple sessions going on at any given time!
Just click whichever session you are interested in attending and it will load that session on your screen.
Note: if it’s not yet time for the session to start, the window will show you a countdown of when the session will start. Wait or come back when it’s the right session start time. Interact in the chat box!
Once a session is over, you need to click back into the schedule and select a new session to enter.

Note: You can still toggle between sessions from the iPhone app or Android web browser, the layout and configuration is just a bit different depending on your device. We’ve shared screenshots of what it might look like from your phone below, but if you can, we recommend you purr-ticipate in the festival from your computer or laptop for the best possible experience.

How can you experience sessions happening at the same time or watch replays?

We’ve got a lot of PURR-gramming planned throughout the day and some sessions overlap with other sessions.
Don’t worry—all sessions will be recorded and a replay will be available for UP TO THREE WEEKS following the weekend so you can BINGE YOUR OWN CAT FESTIVAL on your own time, catching up on all the sessions you missed or re-watching favourite sessions.
The replays will be available to watch at the same virtual festival link above, and we’ll also send an email with links to each recording following the festival.

What should you do if the session you’re viewing isn’t loading properly?

If you’re in a session and the video or audio is lagging, or maybe chat box comments don’t appear to be loading or something looks or feels wrong—really, for any issue—the best thing you can do is to: refresh your browser window!
With the system we are using (Crowdcast), refreshing the browser window or app solves almost all issues.
You can also close the window entirely, re-open the browser window, head back to the virtual festival link and navigate to the session you want to see, but a simple refresh should do the trick for most errors.
On the iPhone app, hit the three dots to open a menu that includes a Refresh button or if on a phone (Android) browser, hit the refresh button on the browser.
We hope that there won’t be errors, or at least, as little errors as possible, but no system is perfect, Internet connections can be spotty, and live events are bound to have *some* issues, so we want you to be prepared if something does go wrong and we thank you for your patience! If you are having issues, leave a comment in the chat box to let the moderator know. If enough people are having issues—we may ask the speaker to refresh, but when in doubt, refresh your page first!

If you’re accessing from the mobile app, your layout will be different! (we do recommend viewing from a computer)

You will notice from a mobile app, there is no “SCHEDULE” text, you will just click into the white rounded title that says Opening Remarks, which will then open a scrollable menu listing all of the sessions. Clicking one of the session titles will open up that particular session.
You will also see that the chat box is on the bottom of the screen, and you will have to tap “View Chat” or the arrow up/down to reveal or hide the chat box.

How can you turn on live captions / improve accessibility?

The system we use to livestream does not have its own built in transcription or captioning feature, but does offer a few alternatives:
- Enable Live Caption in Google Chrome (free)
- Use Otter.ai (free plan)
- Use Web Captioner (free)

These tools do require some set-up in advance so give yourself time before the sessions begin if you’d like the option of having live transcriptions / captioning with your sessions. Note this works best on a computer!

How can you enter for a chance to win cat-themed prizes from our sponsors??

We’re giving away cat-themed prizes throughout the day by randomly selecting people who leave comments or questions in the festival sessions, or post about the festival on Twitter/Instagram (tagging @YEGCatFest and #YEGCatFest).
All you have to do is make sure you’re interacting in sessions and sharing about your festival experience throughout the day!

Please note, all prizes except for Homes Alive Pets requires Edmonton-area pick-up.

Homes Alive Pets does ship across Canada—so you can use your gift card to shop online if you win that prize and aren’t local.

Festival Prizes Up For Grabs:

🎁 2 x $100 gift cards to Homes Alive Pets
🎁 6 x $50 gift cards to Homes Alive Pets
🎁 1 x Pet License Gift Pack from Animal Care & Control Centre
🎁 2 x Cat Themed Prize Packs from Majesty & Friends
🎁 2 x Cat Tree/Condos from the Edmonton Humane Society
🎁 1 x Self Cleaning Litter Box from the Edmonton Humane Society
🎁 1 x 1 Year Supply of Kidney-Chek strips from sn biomedical

Be sure to enter our Digital Scavenger Hunt for a chance to win specific prizes to Majesty & Friends!

We will announce prize winners in a blog post the week of May 30, and also post winners on our social media channels following the festival. If you have won a prize, you will be contacted via email or social media.

How can you shop the Virtual Vendor Marketplace?

Check our main Edmonton Cat Festival website for a link to the Virtual Vendor Marketplace which will go live at 8 a.m. MST on Caturday, May 28, 2022. You’ll be able to shop all sorts of cat products for yourself AND for your cat all in one spot!
You do NOT need a festival ticket to shop!

Plan your day, pre-pick your sessions.

Check out the full festival schedule and plan which sessions you’re going to attend!
Many sessions overlap, so we recommend planning ahead of time what sessions and at what times you’d like to attend (though you are able to switch in between sessions live as they’re happening, and you will have access to recordings of each session for three weeks after the weekend as well).
Most sessions will be live however some may be pre-recorded or a mix of live with pre-recorded video.
Some sessions also encourage you to follow along LIVE! Knowing what you need beforehand will help with that. For some sessions that offer materials, ingredients, or other things you may need if you want to follow along LIVE, check specific session descriptions here to see if they include items you need to prepare beforehand.

THANK YOU!

By supporting the virtual Edmonton International Cat Festival, you’re helping raise money for three Edmonton area cat rescues. These three rescues are doing important work helping cats in need, and they need support more than ever. 100% of proceeds from the festival will be donated to local rescues, adding to the $126,000 that has already been raised for rescues at our annual events since 2014. We couldn’t help them without you, and we couldn’t celebrate cats, cat culture and cat people without you, so THANK YOU!

If you have any questions before the event, feel free to email: [email protected]

“See you” on Caturday and Sunday May 28 & 29, 2022!