Home

Steamboat Springs — A full schedule of live entertainment, children's art activities and more than 150 artisan vendors will add colorful energy to West Lincoln Park this weekend, as the 35th annual Art in the Park opens its gates to art lovers, families and anyone else who wants to come.

Gates open at 9 a.m. Saturday, with the official event ending at 5 p.m. A theater performance by Great American Laughing Stock Co. and the second annual Picnic Theatre Festival starts at 6 p.m. Art in the Park continues from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday.

Admission is free, and donations for the Steamboat Springs Arts Council will be accepted at the entrance. Art in the Park is the biggest fundraiser of the year for the Arts Council, said Rachel Radetsky, the organization's events and facilities coordinator. Organizers hope gate donations will be on par with the nearly $3,000 gathered at the event in 2008, Radetsky said. About 10,000 people come to Art in the Park each year, she said.

There are more booth spaces at this year's event than there have been in the past, Radetsky said, with vendors coming from across the region to offer handmade fine art, jewelry, clothing, ceramic art, photography, wood working, metal working and more.

Steamboat Arts & Crafts Gym will partner with the Arts Council to offer a number of activities from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday and 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sunday at the KidSpot children's art area. All activities are free, with places to donate to the Arts Council throughout the area, said Diane Davis, owner of the Arts & Crafts Gym. Children will have the chance to decorate foam visors, princess tiaras, foam airplanes and rock art. They can decorate and attach wheels to a potato to race in the "Veggie 500," or add their personal touch to a chalkboard graffiti wall, Davis said.

Saturday's Art in the Park is the first to include an evening theater performance, Radetsky said. Admission to "Songs Around a Campfire" - an original musical theater piece produced by the 2009 Picnic Theatre Festival - is free, and the performance shouldn't conflict with other evening events such as the Steamboat Springs Pro Rodeo Series, Radetsky said.

Among other free events featured during the weekend festival are a tie-dye T-shirt demonstration at 9:30 a.m. Saturday and Sunday; a children's music concert at 1 p.m. Saturday; a juggling demonstration by We're Not Clowns at 2 p.m. Sunday; and a long list of live music and dance performances each day.