This will also mean PETA’s annual protest of the event won’t take place, but campaign specialist Ashley Byrne says they will be outside the Verizon Center for every performance.

Performers and animals from the Ringling Bros. Barnum & Bailey circus made their “Pachyderm Parade” across Capitol Hill last night.

At 8 p.m. this evening, a herd of elephants will trudge across Capitol Hill. Why? The circus is in town.

Circus fans and elephant enthusiasts lined the streets last night for the annual Pachyderm Parade, the march that announces that the Ringling Bros. Barnum & Bailey Circus has arrived in town.

If you happen to see a parade of elephants ambling through the city tonight, it isn’t some thinly veiled message about a coming Republican president and how he’ll stomp all over the District for four years—it’s just the annual Pachyderm Parade.