On this day in vegan history · May 21, 2017
The Greatest Show on Earth Closes Its Tent
After 146 years, Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus performed its last show on a Long Island ice rink floor, and when it came back six years later, the animals didn't.
The facts
- Final show
- May 21, 2017, Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum, Uniondale, New York
- Run length
- 146 years, dating to 1871
- Elephants retired
- May 2016, to the Center for Elephant Conservation in Florida
- Relaunch
- September 29, 2023, Bossier City, Louisiana, animal-free
On May 21, 2017, Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus staged its final performance at Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Uniondale, New York, ending a run that traced back to 1871. The closure came after years of weakening attendance, sustained animal rights protests, and rising operating costs, a year after the company retired all of its touring elephants following decades of pressure and a 2011 USDA fine over Animal Welfare Act violations. Feld Entertainment, which owns the circus, folded the show entirely rather than try to run it without the animal acts that had defined it. It stayed dark for six years. When it returned in September 2023, in Bossier City, Louisiana, the show had been rebuilt from scratch around human performers only: no elephants, no tigers, and no ringmaster.
In their words
The day in the words of the people who were there. Every quote is verbatim, and every source links out so you can check it.
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The circus's last performance before the hiatus was its "Out of This World" tour at Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Uniondale, New York on May 21, 2017.
Wikipedia, "Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus"
Source: Wikipedia -
It also did not include clowns or a ringmaster.
Wikipedia, describing the 2023 relaunch
Source: Wikipedia
Why it still matters
The circus that had built its brand on elephants and big cats for over a century decided the only way back was to cut the animals loose entirely, proof that the economics of animal spectacle had actually turned.
Sources
This history is still being written.
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