The 40th Spoleto Festival U.S.A. is in full swing. The music and arts festival opened Friday and runs through the middle of June. In his speech opening the event, Charleston Mayor John Tecklenburg says Spoleto holds a special place for him because he grew up going.
“I was like a little kid in a candy store. I was a chemistry major, but I loved music and played the piano. Every day deciding what event we were going to go to. It was just terrific.”
In his first opening address at the Spoleto Festival U.S.A. on Friday, Charleston Mayor John Tecklenburg recognized his predecessor who helped bring the event to the city 40 years ago. Tecklenburg attributed the success of the arts in Charleston to former Mayor Joe Riley and festival founder and Italian composer Gian Carlo Menotti.
“We know that our city’s great flowering of arts and culture, of civic pride and progress. In short our modern renaissance could never have happened without them.”
Menotti had established a arts and music festival in Italy in 1958. In 1977 he chose Charleston as the city for his American counterpart festival. Spoleto Festival U.S.A. runs through mid-June.