When three Hawaiian paniolo carried off top awards at the world-famous Cheyenne Rodeo 100 years ago, the crowds went wild, and a bond formed between Cheyenne and Waimea that continues today. To celebrate the centennial, musicians, dancers, pa'u riders and paniolo will represent the Paniolo Preservation Society at Cheyenne Frontier Days, a weeklong festival to be held July 18-27 in Wyoming. The celebration highlights the ranching industry's history and future and will honor the 1908 paniolo Ikua Purdy, Rawhide Benni-Low and Archie Kaauai. A Wyoming delegation will visit Hawai'i in August. Cheyenne is 95 miles north of Denver. www.paniolopreservation.org, www.cheyenne.org.

COLORADO

FESTIVAL CELEBRATES 50 YEARS OF SHAKESPEARE IN THE ROCKIES

The Colorado Shakespeare Festival celebrates 50 years of summer performances this year with "Macbeth," "Love's Labour's Lost" and "Henry VIII" among other offerings. Performances are staged in the ivy-clad 1,000-seat Mary Rippon Outdoor Theatre at Colorado University's Boulder campus, with the Flatiron mountains setting an additional dramatic backdrop; indoor performances at University Theatre, main stage. You also can take a backstage tour, meet the actors and attend short talks before the performance. Picnic suppers available. June 20-Aug. 16. Tickets start at $14. www.coloradoshakes.org.

WASHINGTON, D.C.

SOME OF AFGHANISTAN'S CULTURAL TREASURES ON TOUR IN AMERICA

The history of Afghanistan is bloodied with wars, warlords, invasions and occupations, but because the country lay on the ancient Silk Road, it became a crossroads of East and West cultural riches.

The National Gallery of Art in Washington is exhibiting some artifacts that have outlasted all the wars and conflicts. As political chaos overtook Afghanistan in the early 1980s, the staff of the Kabul Museum removed boxloads of cultural objects and hid them for more than 20 years.

Thousands of precious gold, bronze and glass pieces were put in a secret vault in the presidential palace outside Kabul.

A selection of the artifacts ranging from 2200 B.C. to the second century A.D. will be on view through early September and then will travel to San Francisco, Houston and New York through September 2009. www.nga.gov.