SC’s Spoleto Festival USA reaches ticket sales target ahead of closing weekend

SC’s Spoleto hits sales goal ahead of last weekend

CHARLESTON, S.C. — The Spoleto Festival USA enters its final weekend of concerts, plays and fireworks with good news amid tough economic times: It reached a scaled-back target for ticket sales, unless final events are rained out.

The internationally known arts festival opened its 33rd season on Memorial Day weekend with a budget trimmed back to $6.2 million from $8.4 million last year.

“We certainly have made our goal of $2.2 million in box office income,” Nigel Redden, the festival’s general director, said Friday.

But that figure includes some tickets for outdoor events this weekend, when the National Weather Service forecasts up to a 30 percent chance of thunderstorms, and could change if the festival has to give refunds for rained-out events. Final ticket figures will be available Monday.

Events during the closing weekend include the opera “Louise,” a performance by jazz singer Rene Marie and Sunday evening’s traditional open air finale followed by fireworks over Middleton Place plantation on the banks of the Ashley River outside of Charleston.

The festival announced this week that it was selling two-for-one tickets to the finale if tickets were purchased by Saturday.

The weekend also marks chamber music director Charles Wadsworth’s last time conducting a Spoleto concert, as he has done for 50 years on two continents.

Nigel Redden, the festival general director, said that despite a smaller budget, the combination of different events which gives Spoleto its flavor hasn’t changed.

“One of the things that makes this festival special is going to a chamber music concert, is going to see a dance performance and then going to see a number of relatively small things we do,” he said.

The festival has been a boon to at least one local hotel which, like the Charleston tourism industry, has been dealing with the tough economy. According to the local Convention and Visitors Bureau, the number of hotel rooms rented in Charleston County in May was down almost 10 percent from May of 2008.

“Spoleto brings in international travel and our weekends have stayed very steady with Spoleto,” said Gayle Karolczyk, general manager of the Francis Marion Hotel, which overlooks Marion Square where an art show is held during Spoleto.

“You have to look at the glass half full, and it’s not as bad as other areas,” she said, adding the hotel is holding steady.

The Spoleto Festival USA was started in Charleston in 1977 by the late composer Gian Carlo Menotti based on his Festival of Two Worlds in Spoleto, Italy.

Wadsworth first conducted chamber music in Italy and has directed the program in Charleston since the festival’s founding here.

Wadsworth, who now plans to devote more time to composing, was honored at concerts during the 17-day festival and will be honored again with a last farewell this weekend. There will be a tea at the College of Charleston following Wadsworth’s final chamber music concert on Sunday afternoon.

During the festival Redden announced that Geoff Nuttall will become the new director of chamber music. Nuttall co-founded the St. Lawrence String Quartet in 1989. The quartet has performed more than 1,800 concerts worldwide during its existence, including at Spoleto.

The festival opened on a high note with Mayor Joseph P. Riley Jr. announcing the city plans a $105 million renovation of its Gaillard Municipal Auditorium, which is used for major Spoleto productions as well as other events through the year.

_____

On the Net:

Spoleto Festival USA: www.Spoletousa.org