Ringling Brothers circus to relaunch — without animal acts

The “Greatest Show on Earth” is back, except for the animals.

Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus, which ceased production in 2017 after 146 years, will be relaunched in September 2023, owner Feld Entertainment said on Wednesday. Tickets will go on sale in April next year for a tour that will take the renewed circus to more than 50 American cities.

Once a mainstay of entertainment in small and large cities across the country, the new Ringling Brothers circus will not have any of the lions, elephants or other animal acts associated with the show for long. Instead, it will have human performers, according to Feld Entertainment, which also owns the Disney on Ice and Monster Jam franchises.

“We’ve spent countless hours doing research, talking to consumers, and looking for talent around the world to deliver a different experience than any other,” Juliette Feld Grossman, chief operating officer of Feld Entertainment, said in a statement.

Ringling Brothers withdrew elephants from their shows in 2016 after years of complaints from animal rights activists, but ticket sales continued to decline and the previously iconic circus put on a final show the following year.

At the time, Kenneth Feld, president and CEO of Feld Entertainment, said the circus had lost ground among an audience accustomed to online gaming and YouTube celebrities.

“It has gone through world wars, it has gone through all kinds of economic cycles and it has gone through many changes.” Feld said in 2017. “There’s been more change in the world in the last decade than in the last 50 or 75 years. And I don’t think it’s relevant to people in the same way,” added Feld, whose father and uncle they bought the circus in 1967.