Behind
the Scenes at Culpepper & Merriweather Circus
It
takes 40 employees, some scattered all over the country,
two dozen animals, and a fleet of nearly twenty vehicles
to bring our version of circus magic to life each day
in a new community. Many of the staff are never seen by
the public, but here is a rare glimpse of some of the
behind the scenes work they do each day. |
|
|

The
tent, 32 side poles, 16 quarter poles, 2 center poles,
100 stakes and the tent are unloaded from the flatbed
truck each morning and put back on the truck each night
after teardown.
The
tent weights 3600 pounds and is 120 feet long by 80
feet wide. It is 30 feet tall at its highest point.
It is divided 3 sections. |
|
|
See
How We Do It! If
you have a high-speed internet connection,
click below to see the C&M Circus tent as it is
raised on circus day. (This file is 1.8MB, so we don't
recommend opening it with a dial-up connection!)
|
|
The
tent crew drives approximately 75 stakes for the Big
Top each morning. Once the marquee, pony ride and the
rest of the midway are set up, the tent crew has pounded
approximately 100 stakes! |
|
| |
Each
hammer weighs 16 to 20 pounds. |
|
The
tent ropes are tied to the stakes with secure hitch knots
like the one shown here. |
 |
Securing the guylines of the tent takes a lot of muscle. |

Performers
gather at "Back Door" and get ready to perform. |
| |
| Photos
Coming Soon...The C&M Circus Photo Monkey and Tech
Monkey are swinging around the circus lot gathering photos
and information and will be posting them to this page
soon! |
| |
|
| Special
thanks to Lacey Terrell who provided the photographs for
this page. All images are copyright 2006 Lacey Terrell
and may not be used or reproduced without permission.
If you have questions, please contact the webmaster at
webmaster@cmcircus.com |
| |
|
| |
|