Mount Pleasant resident Cyndi Nigh has been an usher for Spoleto Festival USA since 2009. But she’d never done what she did at Friday’s opening ceremony of the festival’s 49th edition. Nigh, 67, ushered the kickoff for the first time, handing out yellow, white and black stickers to audience members.
Despite being a few minutes late to show up for her usher post due to difficulty finding a parking spot (like that never happens here), Nigh bolted to Charleston City Hall for the opening of the festival that’s always a highlight of her year.
“Everybody pulls together,” Nigh said. “The performers, the house management volunteers deliver this incredible 17-day experience.”
A city speaks, the arts respond
Nigh is not alone in enjoying the jubilant atmosphere during the opening of Spoleto. As speeches and music took place on the steps of City Hall at noon on Friday, festival goers sampled mini cannolis and danced in the crowd to performers like Music From the Sole and a jazz performance from students of the Charleston Jazz Academy. The ceremony closed with church bells ringing and plenty of white confetti.
Spoleto General Director and CEO Mena Mark Hanna addressed the crowd, along with government officials such as council members Robert M. Mitchell and Mike Seekings, who officially opened the festival.
“We will open our halls, our theaters, our churches, parks and museums, our homes and our city to the world’s most sweeping and comprehensive arts festival, Spoleto,” Seekings said.
In between the speeches, Music From the Sole paraded to the stage from the back of the crowd. The group of eight tap dancers and five band members dressed in bright patterns and colors lit up the crowd with their energy and sound.
“It’s just special to meet the community,” said dancer Roxanne King. “Just to lay down the groundwork and say ‘Hello, Charleston!’”
Charleston Jazz Academy students Freddy Pleis (drums), Olin Watson (piano), Colin McComb (bass), Isabella Camacho (alto sax), Harrison Chandler (alto sax) and Santiago Balagtas (trumpet) also serenaded the crowd with multiple songs.
When the band played “The Charleston,” Merrick Teichman and Candice Suggars got out of their seats.
Teichman said they were there as “first followers,” encouraging the audience to get up and break the ice on the dance floor.
“Spoleto is diverse, world-class arts, but we can be part of it,” said Suggars. “Doesn’t matter who you are, where you are. You’re welcome here.”
Cue the cannolis
Audience members also had the opportunity to try out cannolis from Sorelle, the Italian restaurant a couple of blocks away at 88 Broad Street.
Dario Vigil, its general manager, donned a white shirt and black apron and created cannolis for onlookers from a tray strapped around his neck.
He said cannolis were part of a collaboration between the festival and Sorelle, and created an “amazing” feeling. But Vigil himself made such an impression that Hanna shouted him out in the middle of his speech.
“Where’s the cannoli guy?” he said, a loud cheer erupting for Vigil and his cannolis.
When the speeches concluded, white confetti popped and the Charleston Jazz Academy played on as the crowd danced. The 2025 festival is officially underway.
Olivia Meier and Henry O’Brien are journalism graduate students of the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University.
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