THE BALLOON MAN

Baraboo will get circus parade July 27
from:  wiscnews.com
By Ben Bromley, Capital Newspapers
Feb 15, 2013
A circus parade soon will march back into Baraboo.

Plans are in the works for a Big Top Parade to be staged July 27 during downtown Baraboo’s Circus Celebration. Business leaders are promoting a parade that, while not delivered on as grand a scale as the Great Circus Parade of old, will anchor a day of circus-themed activities.

“I think it’ll just be great and bring a lot of people to town,” said Deb Bauer, executive director of the Baraboo Area Chamber of Commerce. “We think people will want to come to spend the day, if not the weekend.”

The Chamber of Commerce is a partner in the parade, along with city government, Circus World Museum and Downtown Baraboo, Inc. Organizers are quick to note the parade won’t be as large as the circus parades last seen in Baraboo in 2005. It will still feature circus wagons and animals, but will also include community groups and will follow the route of the downtown business district’s popular holiday season light parade. Organizers, who held their latest planning meeting Thursday, decided a smaller parade would be easier to fund and coordinate.

Circus World executive director Steve Freese said it makes sense for Baraboo to embrace its circus heritage with an annual parade. The Ringling brothers were local boys-turned-circus impresarios, as were their cousins the Gollmars. Meanwhile, the Moellers, cousins to both the Ringlings and Gollmars, built wagons for circuses across the country.

“We’re excited about this,” Freese said. “It just makes perfect sense.”

Circus World is hosting a wild west re-enactment that weekend, and those performers will appear in the parade. Area marching bands have been approached, and businesses and community groups will be invited to enter floats in the parade.

“We’re still in the planning stages, but we’re moving forward,” Bauer said.