Feline fans on the prowl in Brighton cat tour.

On Sunday, 200 cat lovers came to the streets of Brighton for what the promoter billed as the “UK’s first cat tour”.

Brighton Cat Tour took a planned 4.8km (2.98 mile) route from Seven Dials to Hanover, with 25 cat owners offering their houses as pitstops to show off their cats.

Stefan Gutierrez, the charity event’s organiser, claimed 105 homes expressed interest after a TikTok video promoting the event in August received nearly 100,000 views.

“It’s a very wholesome event which brings the local community and elsewhere to Brighton,” according to the BBC.

Mr Gutierrez explained that the Brighton version was inspired by a viral cat tour in Toronto, Canada, in 2024.

He stated people from France, America, Ireland, and Wales purchased tickets for the event.

“It’s an event where I hope people can make friends,” he told me. Prior to the walk, the group raised more than £1,750 for the City Cat Shelter in Coldean.

Liz Scofield stated that as soon as the tour appeared on her Facebook feed, she booked it for her family. “We’re all cat obsessed,” she explained.

According to Mr Gutierrez, twelve volunteers helped manage the course and keep five waves of 40 participants safe.

He described receiving complete authorisation from the council, conducting risk assessments, and obtaining insurance as “quite stressful” as a sole organiser.

Josh McLaughlin / BBC

Nia Wildblood saw the event on social media and felt it would be a “fantastic thing” to volunteer for alongside her husband. “It was a great way for folks to come together to see this amazing city,” she told me.

“I understand a lot of people bought solo tickets – it’s a brilliant opportunity to get to know people that they might not otherwise talk to.”

Josh McLaughlin / BBC

Cleo Oland has been running a cat-sitting business for seven years and says she wanted to participate after viewing the Toronto Cat Tour.

She adopted one of her three cats, Ashai, from the streets of Bahrain through the feline rescue organisation Rescat. “It was really hard for him to be adopted because he was in a really poor condition and he had high medical bills,” says Oland.

, who has Feline Immunodeficiency Virus (FIV), a cat-specific virus that weakens the immune system and makes them more susceptible to diseases, proved popular on the tour, greeting guests on the street as they came.

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