EXPERIENCE the Thrills of Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus: My Review (Fairfax, VA)

I must admit, I have not been to many circus’ in my life. It’s necessarily by choice- but I recall going to one when I was much younger (like maybe 6 or so) with a babysitter and the clown made me cry haha! He wasn’t doing anything mean, he just scared me and he wanted me to go up on stage with him and I would not have it haha. I think he walked away shortly after.

Since then, I don’t think I’ve gone to one since. I suppose when I think of circus’, I think of tigers jumping through rings of fire or elephants on balls. This circus focused more on the acrobatics, music and dancing. (Which wasn’t a problem), but it just felt more like a stage performance than what I think is a “circus.” It also was not held in a tent, but rather an arena, often used for sports events.

Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey had once included animals in their acts but over time, have decided to remove any animals from their performances. The reason was based on the hiatus following the end of animal acts in 2017 and a commitment to animal welfare. There is a lot of criticism or speculation that in order to train some of these animals to do tricks, the treatment of them is poor or even abusive.

However, they did include fire throwing acts, which I enjoyed. I wonder how much workers comp these people get or how often there is a mishap; hopefully not- but with all these stunts, you wonder if there are some!

Performer spinning fire at the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey circus

I wish the video quality was a little better, but unfortunately with poor lighting and my phone camera, this is what you got, haha!

In addition to whatever the first video is called the fire performances, there was singing, dancing, and of course your average clown acts.

I don’t know- even taking away that first experience of a clown that tried to get my little 6-year-old self on stage, I’ve never been a fan of them. Was it their make up? Was it that they didn’t really speak? Was it the surprise factor of flowers squirting water? I don’t know- they’ve always freaked me out a bit and I suppose I never grew out of it.

Instead of animals, they did feature a robotic dog that would come on during certain times in the show. Personally, I didn’t know how I felt about the dog. It looked a bit wonky- but hey! A for effort.

Something I’ve not done a whole lot of research into is the culture of being a circus worker and it is something that interests me. Like how is traveling, how do people get into circus work, is there a certain motivation in it (for the military despite the lack of home stability- you’re serving your country. For cruise workers- although you are working long hours and not able to stay home- you get to travel the world and in some places, get a lot of money (based on the US vs home country income) but what about circus workers? You’d think there’s a motivation besides simple entertainment, right? Hmm..

They also had acrobats near the top of the space- depending on where you were, it might’ve been hard to see them- but I think that we got a pretty decent view from where we were sitting. There was a net at the bottom, but as someone who is scared of heights and could never- it was pretty impressive to me!

I will admit, the view I had was really not the best, unfortunately. In addition to theses, Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey showcased cycle acts, jump roping, balancing, amongst others. Despite my criticisms, it really was a good time!

Do I recommend Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey?

I think that if you’re wanting something to do, it’s in the area and are interested in acrobatics and seeing cool tricks, whether it’s jump-roping on top of giant moving (whatever those things are) or fire performances, yes! I think if you’re looking for your generic tent circus, I would say you’ll probably be disappointed.

As a side note- there are some circus’ that do contain animals still and as a fur mom to a dog and a cat, I do not condone animal cruelty in training (or outside of training). I think if I were to choose this circus and one where they had animals but I knew they were being abused/neglected in training- I would opt for this one 100%.