|
|
The Great International Circus at Olympia
The popularity of traditional circus in the UK has waned in the last thirty years. Gone are the magnificent circus parades to announce the arrival of a circus in town. No longer do great trains carry circuses across the country by night. Gone too are the wild animal acts, side shows and menageries.
In the 1960s and 1970s television brought circus and circus acts to a wider audience in Britain. Television began to show natural history programmes and people began to question the use of animals in the circus. Safari parks, a phenomenon of the same time period, enabled people to see wild animals in more natural surroundings. People were no longer as thrilled and amazed to see lions and tigers in the circus ring as their 19th century ancestors.
Many circuses today however, still feature equestrian acts, including liberty horses and trick riding – the skill that encouraged Philip Astley to start the first circus, Astley’s Amphitheatre in London over two hundred years ago.
In Britain other forms of popular entertainment have increased competition and seen a decline in circus audiences. There are now fewer than twenty circuses in Britain today. The circus owners who continue the tradition are constantly aiming to find new ways of attracting the public with increasingly ambitious staging of their shows.
|
|
