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George Porter Jr. was to perform at the 2020 Savannah Music Festival. Provided

It can take more than two years to organize a big festival like Spoleto Festival USA or the Savannah Music Festival, two of the most dynamic international arts events in the U.S.

These two festivals each span 17 days, present hundreds of performing artists on multiple stages and draw thousands of patrons (and related economic activity) to their picturesque host cities. Spoleto Festival features various kinds of music, opera, theater, dance and even visual art. The Savannah Music Festival presents just about every style of music: classical, folk, world, gospel and more.

These festivals, and others in the region and across the country, rely on staff members to wrangle artists, execute contracts, make travel arrangements, secure visas, find temporary housing, create programming and marketing materials, communicate with donors, sponsors and patrons, and then, ultimately, foster a festive atmosphere once the performers arrive in town.

It is not unusual for a performer or two to cancel an appearance for one reason or another. It is highly unusual for organizers to be forced to cancel an entire festival. And the fallout can be significant. It is no easy task to undo a major international event. It involves logistical and financial challenges nearly as complicated as those associated with putting a festival together.

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Allison de Groot and Tatiana Hargreaves were slated to perform at the 2020 Savannah Music Festival. Michelle Lotker/Provided

“It’s bizarre to be this busy and not presenting music,” said Ryan McMaken, artistic director of the Savannah Music Festival.

Big events scheduled for spring and summer — Spoleto Festival, Savannah Music Festival, High Water Festival, South By Southwest, Brevard Music Festival, North Charleston Arts Fest and more — are canceled.

The Aspen Music Festival was delayed two weeks and shortened. Several others, set for late-summer and fall, such as Bonnaroo, Lollapalooza, Coachella, Austin City Limits Festival, Tanglewood and Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, have not yet announced changes.

'Could've been worse'

McMaken said he and his team began to assess the strange circumstances and consider options two weeks before the festival’s cancellation announcement. By then, many deposits had been paid to participants, he said.

“Things came so hard and fast: I was at a TV station doing a promotional interview one morning, then meeting at city hall that afternoon to talk about (a shutdown),” McMaken said.

Certain aspects of the festival are a bit complicated and require more lead time to set in place, such as the classical programming, some of the jazz events, international performers who must be brought to the U.S. for the festival, special productions, and the Acoustic Music Seminar.

The effort to undo it all has revealed some contractual insufficiencies, McMaken noted, adding that he predicted an effort to revisit "force majeure" clauses, refund policies and other provisions.

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Violist Philip Dukes is in charge of chamber music programming for the Savannah Music Festival. Provided

Many airlines are not refunding tickets but, rather, issuing travel credit that goes to the ticket holder, not the festival. So add that money to the losses column.

The festival’s $3.5 million budget takes into account around $1.3 million in ticket sales that now won’t happen, though festival staff are hoping that ticketholders will donate the money they’ve spent if they can afford to do so. Earned income helps to fund the next 12 months of operations, McMaken said. This means the 2021 budget will need to shrink.

Several concerts have been rescheduled for the fall, and ticket sales are expected to be robust, so 2020 might not be a complete loss, he said.

Some programming for the 2021 festival already is in place, and some concerts meant for this year will roll over to next year. But the programming effort currently is in a holding pattern until the immediate future can be better understood, McMaken said.

The variables are many, he added. Will patrons feel comfortable as part of an audience? Will earned income reach its projected 35-40 percent next year? Will donors step up their giving, or step back?

“It could’ve been worse,” McMaken said. “I’m so glad we weren’t in the middle of the festival when we had to cancel.”

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The Cookers was to take the stage in the Cistern Yard for a night of jazz at the 2020 Spoleto Festival. Provided

'Huge ball of yarn'

“Hard and fast,” that’s the mantra. Nigel Redden, general director of Spoleto Festival USA, also noted how quickly circumstances changed. He left for Europe on Thursday, March 12, with plans to visit Senegal because of the opera “Omar” the festival was to premiere. On Friday, it became clear that he should return to the U.S. He flew back that Monday.

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Cabaret performer Meow Meow was supposed to take over the Woolfe Street Playhouse during Spoleto Festival 2020. Karl Giant/Provided

On Tuesday, he was in discussions with the management committee about options, still holding out some hope that the festival might proceed, albeit without a few of the international presentations. By Thursday, a week after the start of his aborted trip abroad, Redden was increasingly convinced they would need to cancel. A few days later, the executive committee made that recommendation.

Soon, Redden and his team were calling donors, emailing patrons and contacting artists to share the bad news. Many replied with sympathy and gratitude, Redden said.

The disruption is unique, he said. In 1989, Hurricane Hugo devastated the Lowcountry, but it presented less uncertainty, and the 1990 festival was a satisfying and symbolic comeback.

“Here, the devastation is taking place over a longer period of time, with no certainty about when it will end,” Redden observed. “My fondest hope is to say, in 2021, that Charleston is back, safe and ready.”

Year-round arts organizations — Broadway theaters, opera companies, symphony orchestras — are particularly hard hit, he said. Their staff want to resume operations as soon as possible to stem the financial bleeding.

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Rhiannon Giddens, composer of the opera "Omar," was to perform with her partner, multi-instrumentalist Francesco Turrisi, at the Spoleto Festival. File/Karen Cox/Provided

Seasonal and annual events, such as Spoleto Festival, are somewhat better off, Redden said.

“I feel that we are in a lucky place in terms of 2021,” he said. “We have the luxury of waiting a little bit to see how things turn out.”

One thing is certain: the budget is taking a big hit, with more than $4 million that won’t be recovered. Spoleto Festival will end its fiscal year with a $750,000 deficit. Also clear is that a lot of the 2020 programming will be moved to 2021.

Jessie Bagley, director of marketing and public relations, said it has been a challenge to coordinate box office tasks among a team of six, plus PR support.

“It’s a huge advantage to have in-house call center agents — it’s typically a huge advantage, but now it’s a challenge,” she said.

It will take weeks to work through all the ticket orders, processing returns and contributions.

“We’ve had to unravel a pretty huge ball of yarn while transitioning to working remotely,” Bagley said.

A silver lining is that staff could connect directly with each patron, which has highlighted the social nature of the festival.

“There is no way to do the festival without gathering people,” she said. “I didn’t have a full-festival-cancellation-due-to-pandemic cancellation plan before this, but now I do.”

Scraping by

The Charleston Music Hall presents concerts year-round, and the pandemic-induced shutdown came just as the spring season was heating up. The staff has scrambled to cancel or reschedule 50 different events, according to director Charles Carmody.

“It’s been nuts,” he said.

They must negotiate with booking agents, artist managers, external marketing teams and box office personnel. And pushing concerts into the fall results in a pileup that impacts established events. Meanwhile, all income has dried up.

Ann Simmons, deputy director of North Charleston’s Cultural Arts Department, said undoing the annual Arts Fest required a lot of phone calls.

“I had literally just finished the booklet,” she mused. A lost expense. But she managed to cancel ads, saving money.

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Blue Plantation performed at the inaugural Park Circle Pickin' Crawl, part of the North Charleston Arts Fest, in May 2019. This year's festival has been canceled. File/Marie Rodriguez/Special to The Post and Courier

The city allocates about $250,000 for the Arts Fest, most of which is used to pay artists and venues and to cover the cost of advertising. The city managed to avoid spending around $200,000, which now will be directed into the general operating fund, Simmons said.

Most of the events are free, so little earned income was lost. Some sponsorship money and accommodations tax funding had to be returned, but the Cultural Arts Department might be able to apply some grant money it has received to future festivals, Simmons said.

The ripple effect through the community is significant, she noted. Money not spent on ads and venues and food trucks and artists hurts everyone. Performers somehow must scrape by without anticipated income. Small businesses somehow must strive to endure an extended dry spell.

“It’s mostly just really sad,” she said.

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Contact Adam Parker at aparker@postandcourier.com or 843-937-5902.

Reporter

Adam Parker has covered many beats and topics for The Post and Courier, including race and history, religion, and the arts. He is the author of "Outside Agitator: The Civil Rights Struggle of Cleveland Sellers Jr.," published by Hub City Press, and "Us: A Journalist's Look at the Culture, Conflict and Creativity of the South," published by Evening Post Books.

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