Looking cautiously ahead to South Carolina festivals, openings, sports in 2022 | News

With 2021 about to be in the rearview, we’re looking optimistically and cautiously ahead to the South Carolina happenings slated for 2022. 

With the omicron variant on the rise, it’s uncertain if all these events, festivals and openings will actually take place next year. But as of now, some of Charleston’s largest tourist attractions are back on the books. 

That includes the Spoleto Festival, which this year took an outdoor-heavy twist and in 2022 has plans to return indoors. As does the High Water Festival, which draws thousands to a North Charleston park for one weekend every year.

And the Wine + Food Festival, which so far is the only local festival of its stature to require proof of vaccination or a negative COVID-19 test to attend. 

Beyond festivals, sports predictions are rolling in for upcoming seasons, including the Clemson and University of South Carolina football teams, USC women’s basketball team and, of course, Charleston’s own tennis tournament that this year changed names from the Volvo Car Open to the Credit One Charleston Open. 

Here’s more on the much-anticipated highlights of 2022: 

Spoleto Festival USA

What can we expect from Spoleto Festival USA 2022? While much of the program has yet to be announced, its first artistic volleys promise continued innovation coupled with a new programmatic vision and ample collective ambition.

This year’s festival, slated for May 27-June 12, aims to see the return of the annual arts infusion in all its full-tilt glory — safety permitting, a festival priority over the pandemic months. After canceling the festival in 2020 for that reason, Spoleto then presented an outdoor-focused, scaled-down effort in 2021, Charleston’s first major event following the city shuttering due to COVID-19.

The 2022 festival is the first foray of General Director Mena Mark Hanna in his new role, following the retirement of longtime leader Nigel Redden. Recently announced opera offerings promise to break new ground in the art form, revising or flipping narratives, offering new points of view and giving a platform to less-chronicled voices.

Among the three operatic works is the highly anticipated, twice-waylaid world premiere of “Omar,” a new opera by Grammy Award-winning musical artist Rhiannon Giddens. It is based on the life and autobiography of Omar Ibn Said, an enslaved Muslim-African man who was brought to Charleston in 1807.

The coming festival also represents the first to fold in the Spoleto Festival USA Chorus, which replaces a decadeslong partnership with Westminster Choir. The full 2022 program will be announced in February. 

High Water Festival

It’s been two years with no High Water Festival, but the North Charleston Riverfront Park live music extravaganza is slated to return in 2022 with a lineup featuring headliners Jack White and My Morning Jacket. 

Modest Mouse, Old Crow Medicine Show and Black Pumas are also set to play, a deviation from the original canceled roster in 2020. 

The festival, organized by local folk duo Shovels & Rope and typically drawing a crowd of around 10,000 music lovers, returns April 23-24 to two waterfront stages. 

In addition to the music, there are extravagant VIP experiences, including overnight stays nearby and food and drink perks. 

While other festivals around the globe have required vaccination proof or a negative COVID-19 test to enter, High Water has not yet announced any particular rules of the likes. 

Charleston Wine + Food Festival

The Charleston Wine + Food Festival returns after a one-year hiatus March 2-6. This year, the annual festival features 100-plus events that will take place throughout the Charleston area, from downtown to James, Johns, Sullivan’s and Dewees islands.

New to the festival, in its 16th year, are its “bar takeovers,” which come with three drinks and appetizers for $45, two craft beer-focused events and two free gatherings: The Pavilion at Culinary Village featuring area food trucks and family-friendly movie nights that will be held in Hampton Park.

Perhaps the biggest change in 2022 is the festival’s decision to move its Culinary Village to Riverfront Park in North Charleston. The move allows the festival, which will require proof of vaccination or a negative COVID-19 test, to limit crowding during the pandemic era. Beyond that, it provides an opportunity to incorporate live music into the signature three-day event and show attendees a different part of the Charleston area.

A star-studded cast of local and incoming chefs will take part in the 2022 festival, including BJ Dennis, Jason Stanhope (FIG), Mark Marhefka (Abundant Seafood), Maneet Chauhan (Food Network) and many, many more.

While many events are sold out, tickets are still available for more than 20 events.

International African American Museum

Announced more than two decades ago, Charleston’s long-awaited International African American Museum should open this year.

A lengthy process of planning and fundraising led to the museum’s groundbreaking in mid-2019. At that time, the museum was expected to open about two years later, in late 2021.

Construction continued throughout the pandemic, but opening projections were pushed off by about a year, to late 2022.

The museum site was part of Gadsden’s Wharf, a major point of entry for slave ships. Along with the history presented inside the museum itself, which is elevated on 18 pillars, the area under and around it will be memorial gardens, designed to mark that location’s significance.

CEO Tonya Matthews, who was named the museum’s new chief executive in March, has said she envisions an opening season for the IAAM with multiple events, including some that will honor the “sacred site” where it is being built.

In a recent letter to the IAAM’s board, the museum’s former director of planning, Bernice Chu, raised concerns about staff turnover and low morale and expressed doubts that the museum would be ready to open in 2022. 

Chu wrote that, while the building will be completed and the exhibitions will be installed, the visitor experience could be “disappointing” without a “synergetic and energized museum staff.”

The museum’s leadership discounted those concerns.

Former Mayor Joe Riley, who has spearheaded the project, recently said he was confident the museum would open on time, calling this an “exciting time” for the fledgling institution, with the building nearly complete and a debut in view.

South Carolina football

Clemson’s 2021 season was quite the curveball.

No playoff or conference title for the first time in seven years. Struggles for a usually explosive offense. Injuries galore, including a season-ender for star defender Bryan Bresee. Plus, Clemson coach Dabo Swinney had to replace both his offensive and defensive coordinators after seven years of no turnover at either position.

All of that to say, the Tigers should be one of the more fascinating teams in college football in 2022. They have a pair of newly minted play-callers, Wes Goodwin and Brandon Streeter, and a load of talented players returning.

South Carolina surprisingly reached a bowl game in its first year under new head coach Shane Beamer, when most pegged the Gamecocks as a four-win team at best. Despite an offense that went through three quarterbacks and struggled to score all season, USC won six regular-season games and gave Beamer a solid foundation to base his rebuilding project upon.

Next is continuing to build, and Beamer shocked the college football world by convincing former Oklahoma quarterback Spencer Rattler to commit to the Gamecocks out of the transfer portal. The former five-star prospect, surrounded by a strong recruiting class, could make USC an SEC East sleeper in 2022.

USC Women’s Basketball

This year is what should have been two years ago, and what was an inch away in 2021. 

The Gamecocks have their eye on the national championship in 2022, a goal they’ve stated since the summer and one they are talented enough to obtain. 

No team in the country has a wealth of players like USC, with the entire team back from a Final Four run in 2021 and most of the same that was the consensus No. 1 team in the country going into the 2020 NCAA Tournament, before it was called off due to COVID-19. The Gamecocks welcomed their second No. 1 recruiting class in three years for this season, and all are contributing. 

USC will start January 2022 in the midst of its SEC schedule, with one game out to host Connecticut, which it already whipped before Thanksgiving. Picked to win the league again, the Gamecocks are anxious to get to Minneapolis for the Final Four and bring home the prize they were a missed layup away from playing for last season.

National Player of the Year front-runner Aliyah Boston is the dominant force, but all of USC’s Gamecocks can be as forceful as her on any given night. 

Charleston Open

The Charleston’s Women’s Tennis Association event will celebrate its 50th anniversary and begin a new era the same time the 2022 Credit One Charleston Open takes place April 2-10 on Daniel Island.

What is now the largest women-only professional tennis tournament in North America began as the Family Circle Cup on Hilton Head Island in 1973 and moved to Charleston in 2001.

In 2016, the tournament was rebranded as the Volvo Car Open, and in 2018 Charleston businessman and philanthropist Ben Navarro bought the tournament. His Credit One Bank was announced as the title sponsor in 2021.

The tournament owns a special place in women’s tennis history, and past champions include all-time greats such as Chris Evert, Martina Navratilova, Steffi Graf and Venus and Serena Williams.

The 2022 field shapes up as one of the strongest in recent years, with Grand Slam champions such as Simona Halep, Garbiñe Muguruza and Sloane Stephens in the field along with WTA Tour stars Paula Badosa, Belinda Bencic, Leylah Fernandez and Madison Keys.

Another star of the 2022 event will be the renovated Credit One Stadium, with seating expanded from 7,500 to 11,000. The new stadium design includes 16 permanent suites, new concessions and more bathrooms and a 75,000-square-foot stage house.

The stage house includes locker rooms, a gym and training facilities, TV production and media space and an outdoor rooftop restaurant and bar. It’s sure to be a popular concert venue, as well.

Spectators are slated to be on-site for the first time since 2019, as the 2020 event was canceled due to COVID-19 and the 2021 event was played with no fans in the stands.

Maura Hogan, Parker Milner, Emily Williams, Jonathan Blau, David Cloninger and Jeff Hartsell contributed to this report.