[better source needed][1] The circus has been known for its community outreach programs, including Clown Care, as well as its humane treatment of animals.

In 1977, they located and secured an open ground area, in Battery Park, courtesy of founding chairman Alan B. Slifka, where the Big Apple Circus debuted.

[1][12] In 1985, the Boston Pops teamed up with Big Apple Circus for what was touted as an extraordinary collaboration and live performance.

[1][better source needed] In 1989, NYNEX started to sponsor metropolitan New York tours to residents of the area and tourists as well.

[27] 1997 saw new attendance records set, as an estimated 170,000 people went to see the circus' "Medicine Show" production over a total of 114 New York City performances.

[citation needed] Furthermore, Clown Care completed 150,000 hospital visits in one year for the first time in the program's history.

[28] During 1998, the circus was able to break attendance records again,[citation needed] as it celebrated twenty years of operation with engagements at New York's Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts and in Boston.

[citation needed] The circus dropped plans for a second unit that was to play in theaters after less than successful financial results during a trial run.

[39][40] New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg proclaimed November 1, 2002, as "Big Apple Circus Day".

", actors and circus performers Pedro Carrillo and Alesya Gulevich entered the Guinness Book of World Records when, in 2003, they set records, at the same moment, in their different specialties: Carrillo skipped a rope on the high wire 1,323 times in a row, and Gulevich twirled 99 hula hoops at the same time.

[59] The Circus set a fundraising goal for $2 million in 2016 in an effort to maintain operations, but only half of the funds needed were raised.

[5][6] On March 21, 2017, Big Apple Circus announced on Today that acrobat Nik Wallenda of the Wallenda Family of circus performers would be the headline act in the 40th anniversary comeback season at Lincoln Center's Damrosch Park in New York City from October 26, 2017, to January 7, 2018.

[71] In September 2018, Big Apple Circus announced Bindlestiff Family Cirkus owner Stephanie Monseu as the new ringmaster for the 41st season.

[72] The "high flying" season included a group of female-led acts that would be joining Monseu at the Big Apple Circus.

[73][74][75][76] It also introduced a VIP experience called the Mirror Room, which allowed ticket-holders to gain access to a wooden Spiegeltent with food, beverages, photo opportunities, and one-on-one interactions with performers.

[79] Sign language interpreters and sound augmentation for deaf patrons allow the audience to experience the circus as never before.

[80] Started in 2017, upon the circus entering new ownership after bankruptcy, Embracing Autism performances have a reduced running time, as well as sensory adaptations.

It is estimated that the clowns make more than 225,000 visits to children every year "in both inpatient and outpatient units, including intensive care, emergency room, physical therapy, bone marrow transplant, pediatric AIDS, and hematology/oncology.