Where: Charleston, South Carolina
When: spring, summer
If you like: arts and culture
Why you should go: “The performances at the Cistern Yard are intoxicating—you’re listening to people like Patti Smith or Jason Isbell in the middle of these mighty live oaks covered in Spanish moss at night, in the midst of the heat and humidity of the Lowcountry summer,” says Mena Mark Hanna, the general director and CEO of Spoleto Festival USA. Italian American composer Gian Carlo Menotti founded the celebration of the performing arts in 1977, and since then, for seventeen days each spring, the Holy City plays host to contemporary concerts and opera, theater, ballet, and orchestral performances at venues across town, including the Dock Street Theatre and College of Charleston’s aforementioned Cistern Yard (the fiftieth festival runs May 22 to June 7, 2026). “In Charleston, the festival has become something that explores multidisciplinary performing arts,” Hanna says. “All of these different art forms spill over into the streets of a city with so much history, and it’s so evocative of the Lowcountry spirit.”
G&G tip: Opening in February on its namesake river, the Cooper—Charleston’s first luxury waterfront hotel downtown, with panoramic views of the harbor—will make for a fitting home base for Spoleto adventures.
Lindsey Liles joined Garden & Gun in 2020 after completing a master’s in literature in Scotland and a Fulbright grant in Brazil. The Arkansas native is G&G’s digital reporter, covering all aspects of the South, and she especially enjoys putting her biology background to use by writing about wildlife and conservation. She lives on Johns Island, South Carolina.
