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The wildly popular Internet Cat Video Festival has run out of lives. 


The Walker Art Center says it's ending the annual event so it can concentrate on the expansion of the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden. 


The festival began in 2012 as an experiment to see if Internet communities such as cat video fans could be converted into physical communities through live events. And with tens of thousands of people attending the festivals since, the experiment was a success, said Walker Design Director Emmett Byrne.
  


"And we had understood sort of the phenomenon of turning these online memes into actual physical programs and so we felt like it was OK to let it go and encourage people to create their own versions of the project as well," he said.

The Internet Cat Video Festival turns 4


A collection of artifacts from the events will go to the Minnesota Historical Society. The Walker says it hopes fans will feel an urge to copycat the festival and create their own events.

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Euan Kerr

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The festival began in 2012 as an experiment to see if Internet communities such as cat video fans could be converted into physical communities through live events.

No more Internet Cat Video Festival, says the Walker

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