Spoleto Festival USA begins 40th season in South Carolina

CHARLESTON, S.C. – The 40th season of the Spoleto Festival USA is underway amid tributes to the men who established the internationally known art festival in Charleston, South Carolina, and remembrances of the nine people fatally shot in the city last year during Bible study.

Hundreds gathered in front of City Hall on Friday as Mayor John Tecklenburg lauded former Mayor Joe Riley and composer Gian Carlo Menotti for sparking Charleston’s arts renaissance of the past four decades.

Riley retired earlier this year. Tecklenburg is only the second Charleston mayor to open the festival.

Spoleto Board Chairman Edward Sellers said festival organizers are mindful of the upcoming anniversary of the shootings at Emanuel AME Church last June.

A number of Spoleto performances pay tribute to the victims.

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