After 146 years, "The Greatest Show on Earth” will have its final curtain call in May.
The Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey circus made its debut in 1884. Currently, the company has two final show themes: “Circus XTREME” and “Out of This World” with the latter having stopped in the Colonial Life Arena from Jan. 26-29.
Second-year finance student Tommy Driscoll surprised his girlfriend with tickets to the circus. Neither of them had ever been before.
“It was really cool and interesting,” said Sam Charlop, a third-year elementary education student. “I really liked the trapeze artists. I was constantly gasping; it was awesome.”
“Out of this World” features an iced-over floor, stunts performed on ice skates, acrobats, horses, lions, tigers, contortionists, musical numbers, clowns, motorbikes and more.
“They advertise the show as 'The Greatest Show on Earth' and I thought that was pretty accurate,” Driscoll said. “[The performers] just kept throwing stuff at me that I really didn’t expect.”
However, that was not enough to keep the show up and running. According to the Associated Press, a number of reasons brought the circus to an end. Changes in public opinion and taste, continued pushback from animal rights groups, high operating costs and low ticket sales are some of the factors contributing to the circus' end.
"We tried all these different things to see what would work, and supported it with a lot of funding as well, and we weren't successful in finding the solution," said Kenneth Feld, chairman and CEO of Feld Entertainment, which produces Ringling Bros.
Following the removal of elephants in their shows in 2016, Feld Entertainment noticed a significant drop in ticket sales. Not only that, but the struggle to remain relevant and engaging in a society where kids have shorter attention spans has proven a challenge. Ringing Bros. created an online app to appeal to the younger generation but decided to go ahead shutting the show down.
The animals currently used in the show will be relocated at its conclusion and the performers will have help with housing as well as finding other jobs.
“After seeing it, it’s really sad [that the circus is ending] because I wish that my kids could witness something so great,” Driscoll said. “It’s unfortunate that a lot of people are going to miss out on it."