diff --git a/cmd/crictl/events.go b/cmd/crictl/events.go
index d7c5d7c0b2..27331e4563 100644
--- a/cmd/crictl/events.go
+++ b/cmd/crictl/events.go
@@ -28,7 +28,7 @@ import (
 
 var eventsCommand = &cli.Command{
 	Name:                   "events",
-	Usage:                  "Fetch the events of containers",
+	Usage:                  "Stream the events of containers",
 	Aliases:                []string{"event"},
 	UseShortOptionHandling: true,
 	Flags: []cli.Flag{
@@ -48,6 +48,16 @@ var eventsCommand = &cli.Command{
 			return cli.ShowSubcommandHelp(c)
 		}
 
+		switch format := c.String("output"); format {
+		case "json", "yaml":
+			if len(c.String("template")) > 0 {
+				return fmt.Errorf("template can't be used with %q format", format)
+			}
+		case "go-template":
+		default:
+			return fmt.Errorf("don't support %q format", format)
+		}
+
 		runtimeClient, err := getRuntimeService(c, 0)
 		if err != nil {
 			return err
@@ -82,7 +92,7 @@ func Events(cliContext *cli.Context, client internalapi.RuntimeService) error {
 		case e := <-containerEventsCh:
 			err := outputEvent(e, cliContext.String("output"), cliContext.String("template"))
 			if err != nil {
-				return err
+				fmt.Printf("formatting container event: %s\n", err)
 			}
 		}
 	}
diff --git a/docs/crictl.md b/docs/crictl.md
index a2134f6e63..1eb4270da0 100644
--- a/docs/crictl.md
+++ b/docs/crictl.md
@@ -65,7 +65,7 @@ COMMANDS:
 - `statsp`:             List pod(s) resource usage statistics
 - `completion`:         Output bash shell completion code
 - `checkpoint`:         Checkpoint one or more running containers
-- `events, event`:      Fetch the events of containers
+- `events, event`:      Stream the events of containers
 - `help, h`:            Shows a list of commands or help for one command
 
 `crictl` by default connects on Unix to:
diff --git a/test/e2e/events_test.go b/test/e2e/events_test.go
index 1b516c2552..073d6b947b 100644
--- a/test/e2e/events_test.go
+++ b/test/e2e/events_test.go
@@ -24,6 +24,14 @@ import (
 
 // The actual test suite
 var _ = t.Describe("events", func() {
+	It("should fail with not supported output format", func() {
+		t.CrictlExpectFailure("events --output=ini", "", "don't support \"ini\" format")
+	})
+
+	It("should fail with template set for non go-template format", func() {
+		t.CrictlExpectFailure("events --template=\"{{ .containerID }}\"", "", "template can't be used with \"json\" format")
+	})
+
 	It("should succeed", func() {
 		// Given
 		endpoint, testDir, crio := t.StartCrio()