Five tips to RULE THE FESTIVAL

This year's Spoleto and Piccolo Spoleto festivals begin today, opening our annual 17-day season of fine-arts immersion. It's more culture than any individual can hope to absorb, and you'd have to be independently wealthy and blissfully idle to score tickets to all the festival highlights. So how do you make the most out of the festival experience? Listen up.

The 3-point plan

No matter how much money or time you have to spend, follow this formula to get the full festival experience: 1. Book seats at one of the 'big festival' headliners (operas, high-profile theater pieces, etc.); 2. Get tickets to a Chamber Music concert; 3. Spend the bulk of your time (or budget) on performances by Piccolo artists or lesser-known Spoleto acts. This plan exposes you to something grand, mainlines you into the heart of the festival (Charles Wadsworth's Chamber Music concerts are Spoleto staples) and keeps things lively by filling your schedule with creative, quirky content you can't find the rest of the year.

Stay cool, dry

Late May and early June can be lovely here, but if you're planning a full day of attending performances, you'll want to come prepared for heat, humidity and close quar- ters. Loose, light Carolina- casual style (with good walking shoes) makes a good wardrobe - unless you're attending an after-5 p.m. premiere. The key? Stay hydrated and stay dry. Seasoned festivalgoers run on cases of bottled water, generous applications of sweat-absorbing powder and backup supplies of anti-perspirant deodorant. They're also the ones with umbrellas handy whenever there's a chance of afternoon showers.

Transportation

If you're driving, add an extra 10 minutes for traffic and another 10 for parking. Though it's a beautiful place to walk, historic Charleston wasn't designed for cars, and festival traffic tends to demonstrate this. DASH trolleys can help, as can cabs and bike taxis, but finding a ride after a sold-out performance can be frustrating. One smart solution? If you're coming to the peninsula for a day of multiple performances, rack your bike on your car, park the car and pedal your way between venues. A slow-moving bike makes better time in downtown traffic than a car does, and you'll sweat less than you would hustling from a distant parking garage.

Mine Piccolo

Spoleto gets the publicity, but the Piccolo Spoleto lineup is what gives festival season its 'always on' feeling of energy and possibility. There are fantastic plays with great seats for $25, edgy improv and sketch comedies in the Fringe series for $15, and music (particularly jazz) that often challenges anything produced by 'the big festival.' Piccolo acts typically lack the spectacle and grandiosity of Spoleto productions, but the best of its program is provocative, exciting and a relative bargain. Study your Piccolo program when you're making your schedule and plan to visit its visual arts exhibits whenever the time allows.

SpoletoToday

The P&C's SpoletoToday site (www.spoletotoday.com) has evolved from a blog in 2005 to a hub of information and social activity. SpoletoToday delivers real-time reports, photos, videos, commentary and the daily festival buzz, but this year includes participation by local arts enthusiasts and festivalgoers. Subscribe to the podcast, enter a video in our contest, qualify for giveaways and pick up invitations to festive gatherings. If you're trying to spot the hot show before it sells out or just looking for a place to meet other festivalgoers, SpoletoToday is where to begin.