People could not have imagined a circus without horses, elephants, monkeys, and lions. But. Circus Roncalli has recently shunned tradition, swapping flesh and blood for holograms. The shows, however, remain just as spectacular. From 1976, Circus Roncalli has been entertaining crowds with animal shows but now has decided to change things up in an attempt to fight against animal cruelty in the industry.
A German circus started using holographic images instead of real animals, raising awareness against their mistreatment. As we awaken to the reality of the impact we have on our planet many of us have begun to find the image of the classical circus distasteful and cruel and the joy of seeing exotic animals do impressive tricks no longer appears so pure.
Circus Roncalli has stopped using wild animals entirely so that they are not mistreated and instead of performing tricks with living beings, they have started using technological advancements to achieve beautiful effects. Its shows still feature tusks and tails, fiery circles and acrobats, not one of the animals is real, which marks a world’s first. Roncalli wanted to create 3D holographic pictures from projectors while filling the arena measuring 32 meters (105 feet) wide and five meters (16 feet) deep with 360° visibility for the entire audience.
Roncalli’s agency TAG/TRAUM in cooperation with Bluebox partnered with Optoma, and 11 ZU850 laser projectors were installed for a mesmerizing holographic experience. As Birger Wunderlich said, “We have been using Optoma projectors for six years and have consistently had a very positive experience in price, reliability, and performance. We needed a high contrast projector with great colors for the 3D effect and the ZU850’s 2,000,000:1 contrast is perfect for this project.”
More info: roncalli.de
The bold move comes amid increasing global concerns about show animals living much of their lives under terrible conditions in captivity. Activists have accused many circuses of starving, beating, and keeping their animals in unhealthy conditions while they perform for large crowds according to extremely tight schedules.
In the U.K, legislation is before the government which would ban traveling circuses from using wild animals from 2020.