Spoleto Arts Festival 2007 - Charleston, SC

Love it or hate it, Spoleto is without question the most frenetic, vibrant, passionate 17 days of Charleston’s year (May 25 - June 10), two and a half extraordinary weeks during which our city’s love affair with itself seems entirely justified.

Don’t let the cynics tell you Spoleto is just another arts festival. It’s anything but. Spoleto Festival USA with envelope-pushing theatre companies from as far away as Ireland, France, the Netherlands, and the hinterlands of New York City; three full-scale operatic productions, each created from scratch just for us by internationally acclaimed artists; a dance program that draws equally from Tel Aviv, Tbilisi, Montreal, and New England; more than 100 of the finest young symphonic musicians on earth. There are only a handful of festivals in the world that can put together such an ambitious, challenging program. One of them lands in our city this weekend.

There are actually two festivals running concurrently. One is called Spoleto Festival USA and is its own production entity. Spoleto’s where you’ll find Philip Glass premieres and big opera productions. The other, Piccolo Spoleto, is produced by the City of Charleston’s Office of Cultural Affairs. Piccolo augments its big sister with a wide variety of events, performances, plays, productions, and parties that range from free to $35.

You can avoid service charges by buying tickets to all performances in person at the Gaillard Box Office at 77 Calhoun St. Both Spoleto and Piccolo box offices are open daily during the festival, 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Or you can order your tickets online or over the phone. Buy tickets direct from Spoleto Festival USA at 579-3100 or spoletousa.org. Piccolo tickets can be purchased through Ticketmaster at 554-6060 or at piccolospoleto.com.

To keep up to date with all the latest buzz on the festival, I suggest you log on to any of the following blogs:

charlestonmag.com/spoleto/

spoletobuzz.ccpblogs.com/

If you've ever thought about taking a trip to Charleston, SC now would definitely be the time!