Spoleto Festival still has that magic mojo — a return on investment

They started arriving last week toting boxes full of puppets, swords, cameras, cables and hulking instrument cases: The performers who transform the city for 17 days every spring. The ambassadors of the arts. The tradesmen of culture. The Spoletians.

But as the buzz grew louder in Charleston about the best upcoming shows and soirees, there was murmuring about money in Columbia. After trimming $10 million in tourism funding, including a hefty hunk earmarked for the Charleston Area Convention & Visitors Bureau, lawmakers sliced another $246,000 from the coffers of Spoleto Festival USA.

That equates to roughly 4 percent of what the fete typically spends, but the Spoleto bill will be bigger this year. Its highly anticipated "Monkey: Journey to the West" — an acrobatic, martial-arts-infused opera — will be one of its more expensive productions to date. The festival also has pledged $6 million to help the school district rehab its Memminger Auditorium. At the same time, corporate and foundation pledges have dried up, according to Spoleto Chairman Eric Friberg.

Despite its critical success, Spoleto relies heavily on grants, donations and merchandise sales — the side starch of the performing arts. In a blockbuster year, ticket revenue might cover a little over 40 percent of festival expenses.

But these aren't the starving arts. They are actually quite fat. The festival has a $55 million economic impact in Charleston, including 729 jobs and $36 million in direct spending, according to a 2005 study by University of South Carolina's Moore School of Business. In the year USC studied, Spoleto lured an estimated 28,000 people to the area, including almost 20,000 from out of state.

In other words, Spoleto has that magic mojo that consultants refer to as ROI — return on investment — which makes the state budget decision a little mystifying. It's almost as if the three most powerful people in the Statehouse weren't Charleston delegates. But, as they say, the show must go on. The monkey is already on the march.

More beds

A developer has applied for permits to build a 113-room Holiday Inn Express in the triangle of Mount Pleasant between Wingo Way, Mathis Ferry Road and Highway 17 at the foot of the Arthur Ravenel Jr. Bridge.

The request was filed with the Department of Health and Environmental Control by KVH Hospitality Group LLC, a company registered to Charleston developer/hotelier Batson Hewitt Jr. Hewitt has stakes in the French Quarter Inn and Palmetto Commercial Properties.

The cost of change

Like planes on final approach to Atlanta, airline fees just keep coming.

Recently, Continental Airlines, United Airlines and US Airways increased their fee for changing tickets 50 percent, from $100 to $150, while Delta Air Lines pushed its rate from $75 to $100.

American Airlines has let its rebooking fee idle at $100 and Northwest Airlines has kept its price steady at $75.

Reach Kyle Stock at 937-5763 or kstock@postandcourier.com.