We saw this circus a few years ago and it was absolutely vile. We bought the tickets, believing it would just be acrobats, clowns and so on. We had no idea they had an elephant. The poor creature didn't perform but was dragged out during the interval so that people could pose for photos with her.
The elephant apart, it was a dreadful circus. Money-grabbing at every opportunity. Stall selling tat as you went in, pony rides around the ring in the interval, photos with the elephant, a raffle for a cuddly toy. They just wanted money every five minutes. Plus there were animal rights protestors outside (we should have listened to them!) and the ringmaster treated us to a ten minute rant about how they were trying to ruin his livelihood.
I would never, ever go to this circus again and would urge all MNers to boycott it.