As cat lovers all over the world mourn the loss of Cecil the Lion, the Minnesota Internet Cat Video Festival decided to honor Cecil for this year’s festival. Over 13,000 people crammed into a baseball stadium in St. Paul to watch cat videos.

Bonding over cat videos is especially gratifying because people want to connect, and find reasons to be around others, but still be on the internet, Rachel Joyce said, the spokesperson for the festival. Watching people watch the video reel every year is “amazing”, she said, because people “all react at the same time, and then just are completely silent in between” each clip.

To learn more about the 2015 Internet Cat Video Festival, click here.

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