Our Song Kansas State Historical Society Circuses appeared in Kansas as early as the 1850s .
Music is important to any circus, and circuses in Kansas often boasted a band.
Band members usually performed in splendid uniforms. Most circus bands in 1900 had about twenty members. Playing in a circus band is different from other kinds of concert work. Typically the band plays before as well as during each show, often averaging more than seven hours a day. The music must match the action on the stage, down to the beat matching the cadence of the animals.