The enormous white tent was filled with a hazy yellow light, the warm, dusty, mellow light
that thrills the rejoicing heart because it is found nowhere in the world except in the tents of a circus—
the canvas-filtered sunshine and sawdust atmosphere of show day.
—Booth Tarkington

Setting up the tents

The 60' center poles traveled with the circus in extra long wagons. Once the center poles and the locally procured side poles were in place, elephants or men unrolled the canvas. Pieces of the tent had to be laced together, then secured around the perimeter with ropes and stakes. The stakes were driven into the ground by roustabouts in a ring, just like in Dumbo.The canvas was raised by bale rings around central poles, using elephants where available.

Next, bleachers were erected and chairs unfolded and set up.

All of this was done amazingly quickly and with great precision, with the public watching, starting at 5:00 a.m.

The area was sometimes larger than a football field. The back lot had tents, too: a men's tent, a women's tent, Clown Alley, the cook tent, and others as needed.

Eventually tents were made of vinyl, with aluminum poles. They became flame retardant and able to withstand 65 mph winds. They were painted dark colors inside so that lighting effects would work, or they were striped in bright colors to attract attention from afar.

Ringling stopped using tents in 1956. They attempted to revive tents later, but reverted soon to air conditioned arenas that didn't need to be erected for each location.