A sideshow is a less important or less significant event or situation related to a larger, more important one that is happening at the same time. In the end, the meeting was a sideshow to a political storm that broke Thursday
At a circus or fair, a sideshow is a performance that you watch or a game of skill that you play, that is provided in addition to the main entertainment
a minor show that is part of a larger one (as at the circus) a subordinate incident of little importance relative to the main event; "instruction is not an educational sideshow