What was the first Spoleto performance you ever saw? Do you still have the ticket? A photograph? A program tucked away in a drawer? Maybe a VHS recording, a Festival T-shirt, or a story about an artist you met decades ago? As Spoleto Festival USA prepares to celebrate its 50th Anniversary Festival in 2027, the Festival is asking the people who have lived its history to help tell it.
Today, Spoleto launches Spoleto Stories, a community-wide campaign inviting audiences, artists, volunteers, staff, donors, and the broader Charleston community to share the photographs, recordings, programs, memorabilia, and personal memories that capture five decades of Spoleto in Charleston.
Every ticket, photograph, program, costume, and memory is part of the Festival’s history. Spoleto Stories gives our community an opportunity to help preserve those personal connections and share the stories that have made this Festival such a meaningful part of Charleston.
The Festival is looking for both the expected and the unexpected. Community members do not need to have a rare or historically significant artifact to participate. A ticket stub from a first performance, a family photograph, a treasured program, or a story about an unforgettable artist can be just as meaningful as a poster, costume, or other historic item.
Spoleto is seeking:
- Printed materials: Programs, posters, brochures, ticket stubs, maps, invitations, membership materials, and other Festival ephemera
- Photographs: Audience experiences, family traditions, street scenes, volunteers, artists, and behind-the-scenes moments
- Video & audio: Home movies, VHS recordings, interviews, cassette recordings, and Festival broadcasts
- Memorabilia: T-shirts, pins, buttons, staff badges, artist gifts, and other Festival keepsakes
- Unique items: Costumes, set pieces, artwork, correspondence, scrapbooks, and press clippings
- Memories: Stories about performances, artists, traditions, volunteering, and the moments that made Spoleto meaningful
Spoleto is inviting community members to share memories of the performance they have never forgotten, the artist they met, the Festival tradition their family continues, or the unexpected experience that became a lifelong memory. Share a memory by emailing stories@spoletousa.
Digital materials, including photographs, videos, recordings, documents, and scanned memorabilia, can also be emailed to stories@spoletousa.org. Contributors are asked to include their name, a brief description of the material, and the approximate date or Festival season.
For physical materials, Spoleto will host ongoing community archive drop-off hours at its offices at 14 George Street on the first and last Thursday of each month, from 12:00–4:00 p.m., beginning Thursday, August 27, 2026. Festival staff will be available to receive materials, answer questions, and document submissions. Drop-off hours will not be held on Thursday, November 26, or Thursday, December 31, 2026.
For more information, visit https://spoletousa.org/