Big Top Parade
& Circus Celebration
June 14, 2025
Downtown Baraboo
The Big Top Parade will return to the streets of downtown Baraboo on Saturday, June 14, 2025.
The parade will step off at 11 a.m. June 14th, anchoring a weekend full of circus-themed fun in the Ringling Brothers’ hometown. Historic wagons, exotic animals, marching bands and community floats will follow the grand marshals.
The circus celebration will start Thursday evening, when Professor Stich’s Original Circus Band performs at Concerts on the Square. Saturday morning will have entertainment for the crowd downtown before the parade begins.
After the parade, all are encouraged to visit Circus World and see the big top shows at 1:15 and 3:30 p.m.
2025 Parade Grand Marshal
Scott O’Donnell
After more than a decade helping to organize the Big Top Parade as executive director of Circus World, Scott O’Donnell will lead this year’s event as grand marshal.
Last fall O’Donnell finished his second stint at Circus World, a state historic site located on the Ringling Brothers’ original winter quarters in Baraboo. Working with the Baraboo Area Chamber of Commerce and a parade committee, O’Donnell helped recruit entries and set the parade order since his return in 2013. On June 14, he’ll ride in the parade as grand marshal.
O’Donnell first came to Circus World as operations manager in 2003. He went on to become vice president and general manager of The Big Apple Circus. After a stint with concert giant Live Nation, O’Donnell returned to lead Circus World in 2013.
The parade will step off at 11 a.m. on Saturday, June 14, highlighting a weekend full of circus-themed fun in Baraboo. That night, the Al. Ringling Theatre will screen the 2003 Tim Burton film “Big Fish,” which featured O’Donnell’s circus. O’Donnell will lead a talkback session after the movie.
2025 Celebrity Judges
The judges will choose the parade’s top overall entry, as well as the best commercial and nonprofit entries.
Circus Wagons
Circus World is a key partner in the parade, lending its unparalleled collection of historic wagons to the event. Circus Wagons History
2025 Marching Bands
Baraboo High School Band
Northern lights Marching Band
Foward! Marching Band Band
Dual County Community Band
Badger Band
Ringling Bros. Bell Wagon
The Bell Wagon is unique among them all and is believed to be the last remaining circus bell wagon in the world.
The Ringlings commissioned the Ringling’s cousins, Baraboo-based H. Moeller & Sons Wagon Works to construct the wagon for the 1892 season. This 10,380-pound rolling musical instrument Wagon was the gem of the Ringling Circus Parades for many years. This wagon along with three other wagons arrived in March from Florida, where they’re owned by Feld Entertainment,
Also making the 1,440-mile trip from Feld were the Hagenbeck-Wallace Lion’s Bride Tableau Wagon, built in 1905 by the Cincinnati-based Bode Wagon Co. for the Carl Hagenbeck Trained Animal Show; the John Robinson Bandwagon No. 1, often referred to as the Lion and Gladiator Wagon and believed to have been built by Sullivan and Eagle Wagon Co. of Peru, Indiana, for Howe’s Great London Circus; and the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Hippo Cage Wagon No. 73, believed to have been built in 1903 and which, through the years, has housed black-tailed deer before being retrofitted to hold lions and, in 1943, a pygmy hippo.
The wagons are on loan from Feld for at least the next four years