With the current state of the economy, I've been noticing various articles being written about the impact financial crises are having on music festivals. Of significant importance is Spoleto Festival USA, one of FP's top tier classical festivals. Two different online news sources based in Charleston, South Carolina, where the festival is held, have produced articles describing Spoleto’s financial outlook. I, myself, am no economist so I will leave you with links, a short description, and excerpt from each article.

"Lowcountry braces for fallout from bank's sale" (The Post and Courier)

This article describes the impact of the sale of Wachovia Corp., an annual financial supporter of Spoleto for the past 14 years, to Citigroup Inc.

The Spoleto Festival USA already has felt the impact of Wachovia's mounting financial troubles. The bank had donated $100,000 to the spring arts extravaganza annually for the past 14 years. But the company pulled out of a gala sponsorship in recent months, said Julia Forster, Spoleto director of development. Festival organizers are now waiting on a decision about a jazz series Wachovia had supported.

"Winning arts and minds" (The State)

Jeffery Day's story covers the typical struggles arts organizations face in raising funds—the largest South Carolina organizations are doing well and not currently showing a sign of being affected by the economic problems, but the smaller organizations are showing signs of financial strain. Spoleto, while in debt estimated at over $300,000, has a somewhat optimistic ending in this article, as general director Nigel Redden has brought them out of a deeper debt before:

Still, Spoleto has been through hard times before — much harder than this. When Redden took the helm of the festival in 1996, it was about $3 million in debt.

"One has to soldier on," Redden said. "All of us in the arts are accustomed to penury."