The Saturday night Opening Weekend Gala of Spoleto (2005) was awash in culture and couture.
Starting earlier than in years past, the mood of the affair remained giddy for hours
and attracted a who's who of Spoleto glitterati.

A novel party pastime called Dance Heads was the height of the swinging party
and credited to the party planning genius of Mitchell Crosby and Denise Barto.

A green screen and video recorder inserted the floating heads of
party guests into various computer generated cartoonish music video.
The line of black tie guests vying to participate was intense.

Although it came at the end of the night, the most memorable performance was
of festival development doyenne Julia Forster and Betsy Fleming,
executive director of the Gibbes, singing "Wild Thing."