Some information provided by the staff at the city’s Office of Cultural Affairs about the 2008 festival:

By the numbers
700+ events
79 venues
3,500 artists
50,000 program guides
6,000 posters
$1.3 million budget
350+ volunteers
25 interns
17 days
70,000 ticket brochures
40+ Festival Series/Event Coordinators

Here’s the latest list of Piccolo Spoleto shows that, according to the box office, are either sold out or have just a few seats left:

Remaining performance of Scheer and McBrayer is sold out.

Always Patsy Cline. Shows left: 6/5/2008 at 8:00pm; 6/6/2008 at 6:00pm ; 6/7/2008 at 2:30pm; and  6/8/2008 at 4:00pm. Footlight Players Theatre, 20 Queen Street.  Admission:  $29 adults, $27 seniors/students.

Mary Kay Has a Posse. Shows left: 6/1/2008 at 4:00pm; 6/2/2008 at 7:30pm; and  6/5/2008 at 5:00pm .  Theatre 99, 280 Meeting Street (Above The Bicycle Shoppe).  Admission:  $15

Louis Prima. The Wild One. Shows left: 6/1/2008 at 7:00pm; 6/4/2008 at 8:00pm; 6/7/2008 at 3:00pm.  Village Playhouse Theatre, 730 W. Coleman Blvd. Mt. Pleasant.  Admission:  $25.

God’s Trombones. Shows left: 6/1/2008 at 8:00pm and 6/7/2008 at 8:30pm. Footlight Players Theatre, 20 Queen Street.  Admission:  $25 adults, $20 seniors/students

A Complete History of Charleston For Morons. Only show with seats still available is 6/7/2008 at 3pm.  Theatre 99, 280 Meeting Street (Above The Bicycle Shoppe).  Admission:  $15.

St. Petersburg (Russia) String Quartet. Only show left is 6/2/2008 at 6:00pm. New Tabernacle Fourth Baptist Church, 22 Elizabeth Street.  Admission:  $10

Duda Lucena Quartet. Only show with seats still available is 6/2/2008 at 10:30pm. Upstairs at Mistral Restaurant, Festival Entrance at 180 Meeting Street.  Admission:  $15

Tommy Gill Trio. Only show with seats still available is 6/4/2008 at 10:30pm. Upstairs at Mistral Restaurant, Festival Entrance at 180 Meeting Street.  Admission:  $15

Piccolo Harbor Cruise. Rolling on the River Review. Only one with tickets still available is cruise featuring Rob Keiter and Friends on 6/5/2008 at 8pm.

Chuck Boyd, better known as SpoJo Chucker, and jazz man Jack McCray are in the studio with Janet for a great podcast about music around town, monkey shenanigans and more.

Hear today’s podcast direct by following this link, or why not subscribe permanently here throughout the duration of the festival and get it fed to your MP3 player automatically. There’s also our guide to podcasting here.

In case you haven’t heard, “Monkey: Journey to the West” has added another performance. This one is set for Sottile Theatre, Thursday, June 5 at 2pm. Tickets are on sale now!

A little insider information from SpoletoToday: If you go to the add-on performance, you might want to think about picking up your tickets a day earlier from the box office at the Gaillard, or plan to get to the show really early. Sources tell us the line at “will call” for Sunday’s noon add-on show was down George Street and up St. Philips. The show was delayed nearly 15 minutes to get everyone in, and even then, some poor souls had to wait until things got under way, then sneak in. The performers had another show at 6 p.m. that night and had to get going.

It’s at 7 in Marion Square. SpoletoToday will be there with some friends, although we will probably be fashionably late! Look for us! Here’s what we look like.

Stunt Brit Nick Smith and Janet talk about what they like about the festival, why actors need good press and what’s next.

Hear today’s podcast direct by following this link, or why not subscribe permanently here throughout the duration of the festival and get it fed to your MP3 player automatically. There’s also our guide to podcasting here.

The Geoffless Janet overcomes technical difficulties with help from stunt Brit Nick Smith (and a desperate phone call to Don Lewis) to record Charleston Academy of Music faculty members EunJoo Yun, Irina Pevzner and Susan McAdoo talking about their students’ performances during Piccolo, the angst of turning pages, playing with passion and other good stuff.

Hear today’s podcast direct by following this link, or why not subscribe permanently here throughout the duration of the festival and get it fed to your MP3 player automatically. There’s also our guide to podcasting here.

Due to a glitch in the matrix,  SpoletoToday.com has been making you register and log-in to make a comment  and several users have had problems with this. We’ve made some administrative changes and it should be a piece of delicious cake to comment now. If you have any problems, please don’t hesitate to email us at SpoletoToday@postandcourier.com. Thanks for your patience!

Spoleto Festival USA announced today that they have added a fourth performance of “The Be(a)st of Taylor Mac” to the schedule. The additional show will be held at 10pm on Monday, June 2, at the Emmett Robinson Theater at College of Charleston. You can buy tickets as of now.

Here’s the festival’s synopsis: “Sedition meets sequins in an unforgettable evening of cabaret, political tirade and stark-raving fabulousness. Armed with little more than a ukulele, a suitcase of outrageous costumes and an utterly charming/disarming sense of humor, this New York performance art legend offers wry and incisive commentary on the world and sings original songs about everything from love to Lynne Cheney.”

I was invited to, and actually got to attend, a party at 10 p.m. Thursday after the opening night of “The Burial at Thebes” at the Church Street home of Shea and John Kuhn. Gorgeous home, which probably goes without saying: One perk of being with SpoletoToday.com is the chance to go inside some of the beautifully restored houses one usually only sees from the street.

The first guests I see are Yuriy Bekker, concertmaster of the Charleston Symphony Orchestra, and pianist and College of Charleston faculty member Irina Pevzner. Shortly thereafter, we were joined by Charleston Academy of Music founder and director Eun Joo Yun and CAM pianist Susan MacAdoo, and 10-year-old piano student Madeline Kuhn, up late for the big party. Yun’s academy goes beyond the usual requisite piano lessons for children. The school also offers lessons in violin, viola, cello, classical guitar and voice. An accomplished pianist, Yun has attracted instructors from all over the world to help create the next generation of musicians. Bekker and Pevzner are also on the faculty.

I also met Jeffrey Day, who is covering the festival for The State newspaper in Columbia, and John and Gretchen Stoehr. John is the arts editor of Charleston’s City Paper. It’s interesting that there are so many journalists in town and yet our paths seldom seem to intersect. I have yet to meet our own Tim Page. It’s fun to get other professionals’ takes on the performances and the city, but talk inevitably shifts to the state of the media, which is less happy party fare.

It was a crowded affair and I didn’t meet any guests of honor until it was wrapping up. I had just a minute with director Lucy Pitman-Wallace. Nottingham Playhouse has brought the reimagined Greek tragedy of Antigone from England for a run at the College of Charleston Cistern from May 29 to June 2. Rumor has it that Paul Bentall as Creon is phenomenal.