The Circus World Museum's Great Circus Parade has taken a long and circuitous route this year and not the route through Milwaukee that it has taken since 1985.
In late 2003, the Circus World Museum announced that the parade with its animals, wagons, performers and other assorted circus attractions would not be held in Milwaukee because of a lack of finances, said Ed Taylor, the museum's communications director. Fears that the parade would go under forever were allayed when the Circus World Museum's Board of Directors announced Jan. 8 that if sufficient monetary pledges could be collected by Jan. 29, the museum would stage the Great Circus Parade in the Baraboo area, where the museum is headquartered.
Staging the parade in Milwaukee cost "in the neighborhood of $1. 5 million" and the museum could not secure the financial support, most of which came from private individuals, to pay for the cost of the parade.
However, it's not a done deal that the parade will go on in Baraboo, a town of about 15,000 people 40 miles northwest of Madison. Whether or not the necessary money can be raised in the next three weeks remains to be seen, Taylor said, but he is "optimistic, confident and hopeful" that the funds will be raised.
That's good news for the Circus World Museum. The Great Circus Parade, which gathers funds from corporate and individual sponsors, is its "biggest and highest-profile" fund-raiser, Taylor said. The Circus Museum needs the revenue from the parade to continue its day-to-day operations.
Although the Circus World Museum, a 39-building complex situated on 63 acres along the Baraboo River, is a state-owned historic site, it is run by a private nonprofit foundation and receives no state funding.
The museum is sustained by revenue from the parade, donations and funds it creates, such as admissions, concessions and souvenirs.
"Whatever revenue we generate, that's what we work with year in and year out," Taylor said. The revenue garnered from these sources is used to fund its programs, maintain the museum's collection of over one million artifacts including two hundred antique horse-drawn wagons and further its mission of keeping the history of circuses alive. The museum is located on the grounds of the original winter quarters of the Ringling Bros. Circus.
The museum reports that it has attracted over 7 million visitors to the Baraboo area since it first opened its doors in 1959. Some Milwaukee residents who have enjoyed watching the parade over the years doubt it can be successful in Baraboo.
"It's a little upsetting," said freshman and Milwaukee native Erich Roush. " I don't think (the parade) will be as big a hit anywhere else."