Mount Pleasant Magazine Jan/Feb 2015

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ists, as well as emerging performers in
dance, music, opera and theater. Its
sister festival, Piccolo Spoleto, runs
simultaneously with Spoleto Festival
USA, offering jazz, dance, films, the-
ater, choral music, classical music, po-
etry readings and exhibits that feature
artists from across the Southeast.
“Spoleto Festival USA is not
a festival driven necessarily by big
names, but by repertory. … by a very
interesting mix of programs,” Redden
said. “There’s something enormously
exciting about the juxtaposition of a
work that is a thousand years old with
something that’s brand new. That sets
us apart from any other art festival in
the world.”
Cooper river Bridge run
Less than a year after Spoleto
Festival USA made its debut, a small
group of local health enthusiasts
devised a plan to get people off their
couches.
“The vision for the first Cooper
River Bridge Run was to promote
health and wellness locally,” said
race director Julian Smith. “Now
we’re promoting health and wellness
nationally and internationally. I think
that’s pretty cool.”
Mount Pleasant, which had long
served as a gateway to the island
beaches, was suddenly ground zero
for an event that would eventually be
counted among the most important
10K runs in the nation.
“One of the major things that put
us on the map was when Runner’s
World magazine did a big spread on
the race in the early 1990s,” Smith
explained. “It had a major impact on
us because it really got us out there
nationally. Then in 1994, Oprah
Winfrey ran the race, which also got
us a lot of national attention. Those
two things, along with the addition of
corporate sponsorships, helped make
the Bridge Run what it is today.”
Although this event, which takes
place in late March or early April,
The vision for the first Cooper River Bridge Run was to promote health
and wellness in the Lowcountry. It now does the same internationally.
BY THE NUMBERS
• Inaugural year: 1978
• Number of years in existence: 37
• First year attendance: 6,000
• Attendance in 2014: 40,000
• Local economic impact in 2014: $30 million
• Date(s) of 2015 event: March 28
• Length of event: 1 day
• Website:
Photo courtesy of the Cooper River Bridge Run.