A Night at the Circus (photos)

We captured a few moments of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus’s “Legends” show with our camera at the Verizon Center in Washington D.C., March 19. We have just a limited number of photos to show you this year as the media were only permitted to take pictures of the opening parade, and the traditional elephant walk through Washington, D.C., did not happen. Last month, the circus announced that it plans to phase out all elephants from its multiple traveling circus performances by 2018, no doubt responding to years of protests from animal rights activists. All 13 Asian elephants that are now part of the Ringling Bros. shows will be sent to the circus’s Center for Elephant Conservation in Florida. There, they will join the rest of the the Ringling Bros. herd of more than 40 elephants. On March 20, the circus in partnership with the D.C. United Foundation’s United Soccer Club did put on a private performance for D.C. kids from the U.S. Soccer Foundation’s Soccer for Success program, involving Kelly Ann, a 9,700-pound soccer playing elephant. D.C. United Manager Ben Olsen and circus clowns mixed it up with the kids.
The circus ran a total of eight performances in D.C. through March 22, but you can catch it at Baltimore’s Royal Farms Arena where it opens on March 25.

View our photos of the Circus by clicking on the photo icons below.