I first heard about Spoleto Festival from my sister Deb. She's a director of choirs at a high school in southern New Jersey and is often in tune to interesting cultural destinations. Well, Spoleto Festival is certainly that.
I've been attending Spoleto since about 1992. I also had the great fortune of working for a customer - I ultimately went to work for the company directly for a few years - that had a warehouse outside of the city. I made some great friends and now have many great reasons to visit Charleston, SC.
There are two websites that are needed to determine your schedule when you decide to attend Spoleto Festival. The first is the main website: http://www.spoletousa.org/2009.php. This is where my sisters and I have found out that Kurt Elling was appearing (I have seen him in concert at Spoleto three times) at previous festivals. What a thrill.
The sister festival's website this year is: http://www.piccolospoleto.com/home/default.aspx. Since my sister is a choir director, and one of my other sisters has sung in choirs, we all like choral music. And we have seen the Westminster College Choir at a main Spoleto Festival concert. But Piccolo Spoleto has the Choral Artists Series, where we have come across some of the most stunning performances by regional choirs. There is also The Festival of churches, which also includes a fair amount of choral concerts. Piccolo Spoleto also has the L'Organo Recital Series, which is a series of organ concerts held at various churches across the city.
What I love about Spoleto is the opportunity to see big-time, big-name performers - The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater is performing this year - as well as lesser well known performers in small, intimate venues. Mix it all in with the juried art exhibits, the wonderful crafters at the Craft Fair at Wragg square, plays, opera, musicals, revues, comedy and the brilliant restaurants of Charleston, and you end up with exhausting days. Exhilerating days, for sure. But we always sleep well having gotten ourselves well-sated in every possible way.
I cannot recommend enough a visit to Charleston. Of course, I haven't even mentioned what an amazing history Charleston has, or that you can tour some great naval ships across the harbor at the site of the old Navy base. And there are plantations to visit, and golfing is pretty big in South Carolina, too.
Lots to do. You should go!
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