Latch Fest 2024
Whittier Bar
Tulsa
Aug. 9 & 10, 2024
Sitting side by side at Whittier Bar on a slow afternoon, Latch Fest organizers Laura Voth and Bradley Metcalf were musing on what it is about a concert weekend dedicated to a bar cat that just … works. “Bradley and I are polar opposites, but our hearts are in the same place,” Voth told me. “We’re both made of fur and claws.”
Less than a week before, the place was anything but slow. Multitudes of patrons for Latch Fest 2024 showed up adorned with cat ears and feline print clothes and spent two days shopping from various vendors, adopting cats in need, noshing on mozzarella sticks, and moshing to metal and industrial bands.
A jar of cat testicles also made an appearance, formerly belonging to the reason for the season: Latch.
Latch is a legend among bar cats, as the above photo shows. It’s hard to remember a time at Whittier before Latch manifested himself as the patron saint of feline chill. It’s been an understood rule that you could ask a stranger to move a seat down to accommodate your friend group at the bar. But under no circumstances would you ever disturb Latch on his stool of the day.
I asked Whittier owner Nick Flores for his first Latch memory. “Oh man,” he said. “Honestly, Latch just appeared like a spectral being.” And Latch Fest, now in its second year, is the annual party for this spectral being.
Metcalf, a Whittier regular and local musician, said it started because he “just wanted to throw a party for a bar cat.” Voth—another regular and an art educator and activist for survivors of sexual abuse and domestic violence—caught wind of her friend’s fun idea and offered to connect him with T‑Town TNR (Trap, Neuter, Return). Proceeds from both Latch Fests went to that group, with this year’s earnings projected to double last year’s net.