Charleston’s Spoleto Festival is hurting. A boycott protesting South Carolina’s flying of the Confederate flag is having its effect. “Overall ticket sales are down 20 percent and group sales down 45 percent from last year. ‘The silence of artists is the most painful thing for me,’ said Spoleto’s general manager and director, Nigel Redden, who has argued to his artists that they should register their opinions through their performances, not their absence.” – Newark Star-Ledger