The Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus is returning to Milwaukee, 6 years after it closed up shop

The Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey circus will be back in town at Fiserv Forum in October, six years after it closed up shop.

After 146 years of circus performances, the owners, Feld Entertainment, shut down the circus in 2017, citing a number of reasons including declining attendance, high costs and the changing view of the public toward featuring wild and exotic animals.

At the time, Kenneth Feld, chairman and CEO of Feld Entertainment, said: "There isn't any one thing. This has been a very difficult decision for me and for the entire family."

In announcing the decision in 2017, Juliette Feld, the company's chief operating officer, said that attendance had been declining for a decade, exacerbated by a "dramatic drop" when the circus removed elephants from performances due to public concerns over animal cruelty.

In May 2022, the Feld family announced the comeback of the circus, this time without animal acts. In an interview with The Associated Press, Juliette Feld said that since the circus' closure, she'd heard from many fans that it still "holds a special place in people's hearts."

The original Ringling Bros. circus was founded in 1884 in Baraboo, Wisconsin, before eventually merging with Barnum & Bailey. It was bought by the Feld family in 1967.

The reimagined circus will start traveling through the country this fall, with a focus on the "superhuman feats" of the human performers, including high-wire, trapeze and bicycle acts.

The Fiserv Forum shows will be at 7 p.m. on Oct. 13; 11 a.m., 3 and 7 p.m. on Oct. 14; and 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. on Oct. 15. Presale tickets are available now, with sales opening to the general public on March 21 at 10 a.m. Prices weren't immediately available.

For information and tickets, go to ringling.com.

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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus returning to Milwaukee