Finally, Chicago Is Getting A Cat Tour Of Its Own In Lincoln Square

LINCOLN SQUARE — Lincoln Square neighbors will be able enjoy a day of cat videos followed by a street tour showcasing the neighborhood’s feline friends this August. 

“Caturday” in Lincoln Square will kick off 12:30 p.m. Aug. 8 with a screening of CatVideoFest 2026 at the Davis Theater, 4614 N Lincoln Ave., followed by the first-ever Lincoln Square Cat Tour through the neighborhood from 3-5 p.m.

The is the second year the Davis Theater will host the video festival. 

“Independent filmmaker Will Braden basically scrubs through thousands, if not more, of cat videos that he finds on the internet. There’s also user submissions as well,” said Peter Kuli, the program director at Davis. “So it’s a 70-minute compilation of viral video cat videos and stuff that is usually user-submitted from their own cats.” 

Cat tours have taken off in other cities, with hundreds — even thousands — of people gathering to spot cats in windows and on patios and cat owners making displays to show off their felines.

Neighbor Christine Blevins got the idea for the Cat Tour after hearing about the phenomenon in other cities and after the Davis Theater hosted CatVideoFest last year, she said.

“My friend and I went to breakfast first and I saw all these people wearing cat stuff in the restaurant. I didn’t realize we were supposed to wear cat ears or dress up for this,” Blevins said. 

The experience made her want to get a cat tour going. And since Lincoln Square has quirky, “Gilmore Girls” vibes she figured she’d reach out to other cat owners and neighbors to see if they’d be interested in helping to get a cat tour started, she said.

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“This is just the perfect neighborhood for it,” Blevins said. “Lincoln Square is kind of like the Stars Hollow of Chicago.” 

After posting to the Lincoln Square Facebook page she got a wave of interest, including from tour volunteer Kalin Webber and cat host Rachel Harders. 

“I saw the post from Christine and immediately was like, ‘Sign me up,’” Webber said. “I’m ready to like go nuts on this thing. I love this kind of stuff.” 

Webber’s day job is in marketing and she has experience doing branded events, but helping launch the neighborhood’s first cat tour was something she couldn’t pass up, she said.

The boundaries of the tour are the Chicago River and Montrose, Foster and Damen avenues.

While tour routes are still being finalized, the main goal is to provide feline fans the chance to walk through the neighborhood where they can get up close to meet and greet pets on front porches or “catios” or view them from afar via home or apartment windows, organizers said. 

Because the group is still vetting addresses submitted via an online application form in order to plot routes for cat locations within the boundaries of the map, it doesn’t yet have an accurate number of participants yet, organizers said.

“However, we will have specific routes defined once we see where the heaviest concentrations are and will consider that along with what streets are best for the routes,” Webber said.

Once the number of cats is finalized, organizers plan to break the neighborhood into four quadrants and having volunteer-led tours for those that want to be in a group. There will be a map for self-guided tours as well.

“We expect a lot of kitties to be in windows, but also encourage hosts to hold up their cats Lion King-style for the crowd to admire if their majestic fur balls tolerate it,” Webber said.

Organizers are also encouraging neighbors to volunteer to offer “family lemonade stands, treats, music or street artists (face painting, puppet show, caricature artist) to keep everyone smiling on a warm summer day!”

Harders is excited to showcase her pets Eleanor and Frankie, a pair of Cornish Rex cats. Eleanor just turned 4 and Frankie will be 2 in September, she said. 

“My upstairs neighbor sent the cat tour info to me. And then I immediately was like, ‘This is something that we should totally do.’ And my cats love to hang out on the porch, so we will probably be hanging out on the front stoop with our cats,” Harders said. 

Harders brings Eleanor and Frankie — which she calls “adventure cats” — outside using harnesses. They have been on the CTA holiday train, taken photos with Santa at the vet and more, she said. 

“They’re Chicago cats,” Harders said. 

Even those without cats will enjoy the day, which will show off not only the animals but the neighborhood itself, organizers said.

“The moviegoing experience, everything that happens before or after the screening, is just as important as the actual screening itself,” Kuli said. “Being able to kind of pick up the momentum of watching an hour-plus of cat videos and then being able to engage with these animals as a reflection of their own community and everything in their own neighborhood is really exciting.” 

In response to hearing from cat owners who live outside the tour’s boundaries seeking to take part, organizers said on Tik Tok that they are “putting together resources to help others around the city” potentially plan their own tours in different neighborhoods.

“We plan to share something by the end of the summer,” the post reads.

There is also a second CatVideo Fest 2026 screening at 12:30 p.m. Aug. 9 at the Davis. Ten percent of ticket sales for the two screenings will be donated to Red Door Animal Shelter, a nonprofit no-kill shelter based out of Rogers Park, organizers said.  

The nonprofit will also have a table at the Davis during the screenings featuring a few kittens as well as information about how to get involved in helping care for the animals, Kuli said.

“So folks can donate any unused cat food they might have — toys, blankets and towels are really important for shelters. Especially ones with younger kittens,” Kuli said.

Tickets for the video fest are $10.08 and the cat tour is free to attend. 

For information about how to become a cat host or volunteer on the tour in Lincoln Square, visit this Google form or email the organizers at LSQcattour@gmail.com. For more information about the tour visit the event’s Instagram, Facebook and TikTok profiles.