January – First Friday Artwalk, a collaboration between the Steamboat Springs Arts Council and several business and art galleries around Steamboat Springs, built on a strong start to draw locals and visitors into galleries with coordinated openings on the first Friday of each month. The next Artwalk is Friday, Jan. 2.

February – Owners of The Ghost Ranch Saloon announced plans to put a live music venue where Off the Beaten Path Bookstore once stood. The bar, restaurant and music hall plans to book regional and national acts. Construction is expected to be complete in March 2009, with an opening date in May, owners said in early December.

April – Steamboat Ski and Resort Corp. unveiled its inaugural “Springalicious” end-of-season event, following in the footsteps of other Colorado resorts such as Copper Mountain to book live music from Susan Tedeschi, The Radiators and American Relay.

May – The Steamboat Mountain Theater closed its doors after the final performance of the 25th annual Cabaret, a fundraiser for the Steamboat Springs Arts Council. Although the venue had been open for less than three years, its destruction – along the demolition of most of Ski Time Square, including nightspots in Wired Lounge, Lupo’s and Pirate’s Pub – left local performing arts groups without a permanent stage.

June – Strings Music Festival opened its 21st season with a new home at the Strings Music Pavilion, which stands on the same site as the old Strings Tent. The venue holds about 500 people, and cost upward of $4 million to construct.

All That Jazz music store opened in its new location, with about twice the floor space and approximately the same amount of music inventory as the store had offered the previous 18 years.

July – Perry-Mansfield Performing Arts School and Camp celebrated its 95th summer with a community party.

August – Emerald City Opera opened its sixth season with a new program, the Opera Artists Institute for Emerging Singers. Students participating in the program, which is designed as a training method for young and aspiring opera singers, performed W.A. Mozart’s “Cosi fan tutte” in towns across Northwest Colorado. The company staged a production of Verdi’s “La Traviata” in Steamboat Springs.

October – The Steamboat Springs Orchestra opened its second fully programmed season, tackling Beethoven’s “Eroica” symphony and kicking off a 2008-09 schedule that will include a January performance by a Jeans N’ Classics, a Beatles tribute group.