Cycling isn’t everyone’s idea for the basis of a festival, but perhaps it should be. Oklahoma, unfortunately, winds up somewhere on the list of Top 10 most obese states annually. However, the secret is out: A leisurely ride on a bike through town, in the country or even in the gym is a low-impact activity that can benefit your health. It’s also happens to be fun, and that’s where Saint Francis Tulsa Tough begins. Whether you’re purely a recreational rider or in pursuit of a jersey, this three-day event based in downtown Tulsa has plenty of options for participants. Racers can hit intense courses while others can be a part of the tour rides for individuals and families. There’s also a festival of vendors and artisans along with children’s activities. Join the stream when Tulsa gets moving Friday, June 7-Sunday, June 9, along Tulsa’s urban trails. Visit www.tulsatough.com for schedules and race registration information.

Whether it’s jazz, blues, gospel, swing or rock ‘n’ roll you’re after, Oklahoma City’s Charlie Christian touched it all. From his upbringing in OKC’s early Deep Deuce District where his older brothers taught him to play jazz on his guitar to the Staten Island sanitarium where he died from tuberculosis at the age of 25, Christian filled his short life with vigor. Playing for Benny Goodman and later as a solo artist, he made the electric guitar a staple of jazz and helped define the bebop sound that flourished long after his death. In his honor, the Charlie Christian International Music Festival celebrates its 28th year of bringing musical excellence to Oklahoma City. This year’s festival will be Friday, June 7-Saturday, June 8, at the Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark, 2 S. Mickey Mantle Drive, with NAJEE, All Funk Radio Show, Kirk Whalum and many others in concert and jam sessions. Go to www.charliechristianmusicfestival.com for the details on admission, schedules and the lineup.

American Indian culture gets high visibility in downtown Oklahoma City during the Red Earth Native American Cultural Festival and Parade. Dancers in their feathered- and beaded-best can be seen walking all around Cox Convention Center as they come for fellowship and to win. From Friday, June 7-Sunday, June 9, the festival brings members of hundreds of tribes from around the country to celebrate through art, music and dance. A grand parade on Friday morning opens the main event with dance participants in full regalia. The powwow arena opens soon after for dance demonstrations, gourd dancing and contest dancing. Throughout, guests will find a number of vendors selling merchandise and traditional goods such as hand-woven baskets and tapestries, jewelry, sculpture, pottery and fine art painting. Before it’s all over, everyone will know their northern drum from their southern. Tickets are $7.50-$10, available at www.coxconventioncenter.com. For more about the festival and the Red Earth Museum, visit www.redearth.org. Hundreds of competitive powwow dancers and Native American artists visit downtown Oklahoma City for a week of celebration of culture through dance, art and music at the Cox Convention Center. www.redearth.org

Friday, June 7-Saturday, June 8

“Prestigious” is the word, which comes to mind when you think of the Prix de West show at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum. Multiple that by 40 years, and you have the largest Prix de West Invitational Art Exhibition yet. The 40th anniversary celebration will include the exhibit, sale and art and history seminars of years past along with demonstrations of work by artists, receptions and an awards banquet during the big opening weekend, Friday, June 7-Saturday, June 8. The exhibit itself will feature some 350 works of fine contemporary art, proving Western art as a still a viable, vibrant genre. The exhibit will continue through Aug. 4. Regular museum hours are 10 a.m.-5 p.m. daily, and admission is $5.75-$12.50. Go to www.nationalcowboymuseum.org for all the details of the Prix de West opening weekend, including events, schedules and making reservations. The museum is located at 1700 NE 63rd St., Oklahoma City.

Friday, June 7, 7 p.m.

It’s a brand new event, but it already has a substantial history behind it. Vintage Tulsa: The Oil Barons Ball makes its debut Friday, June 7, and it promises to become the signature summer event of the Tulsa Historical Society. The fundraiser for THS and its programs will be at the society’s home, the Travis Mansion, constructed in 1919 by oilmen the Travis Brothers at the height of Tulsa’s oil boom and “golden age” at 2445 S. Peoria Ave. The event will have music, entertainment, dinner, dancing and remembrances of Tulsa’s past and emergence as a modern, sophisticated city. Tickets are $100 each, and sponsorships are available. Cocktails, hors d’oeuvres and live jazz open the evening at 7 p.m. followed by dinner and festivities. For more on this elegant soiree, call 918.712.9484 or go to www.tulsahistory.org. Vintage Tulsa: The Oil Barons Ball is sponsored by Oklahoma Magazine.

Friday, June 7, 7:30 p.m.

Texas music man Ray Wylie Hubbard returns to the state where he was born and raised with a concert at Tulsa Little Theatre, 1511 S. Delaware Ave. Presented by Tulsa Roots Music, the show features Hubbard playing the music that has made him a respected elder statesman among Texas musicians. Outlaw country with blues and folk thrown in, Hubbard’s popular pieces include Down Home Country Blues and South of the River on the theme of hard, unbridled living. As a singer, Hubbard is a first-rate entertainer. As a songwriter, he’s an artist and poet. Concert is at 7:30 p.m. Friday, June 7. Tickets are $25-$45 available at www.tulsarootsmusic.org.

Saturday, June 8, 7 p.m.

For more than 80 years old, St. John Medical Center has provided complete and comprehensive health services to the Tulsa community, and it couldn’t do it with the community’s help in turn. St. John Street Party 2013: Light Up the Night is the 20th summer affair that brings center supporters together for a fun but meaningful night. More than 70 of Tulsa’s best-loved restaurants, wine-tasting bistros and establishments will be at the center’s midtown Tulsa campus on 19th Street between Utica and Wheeling avenues from 7-11:30 p.m. Saturday, June 8, along with live music from the Fabulous Mid Life Crisis Band and other evening festivities for this unique event benefiting St. John’s In His Image Family Medicine Residency training program. Tickets are $100 each with corporate sponsorships available. For more, visit www.sjmc.org online or call 918.744.2820.

This week

Summer is for Shakespeare and all who profess an abiding affection for the greatest playwright of the English language (yes, it is English).

Oklahoma Shakespeare in the Park stays faithful with a a 29th season of dramas, histories and comedies at the outdoor Myriad Botanical Gardens Water Stage, 301 W. Reno Ave., Oklahoma City. The “complicated” comedy Measure for Measure opens the season at 8 p.m. Thursday, June 6, with a moral leader who compromises a devout young woman caught between her virtue and saving her brother’s life. Set in the late 1960s, Oklahoma Shakespeare presents the dark comedy through June 22. The season includes the light French comedy Ring Round the Moon (June 27-July 13) and two Shakespearian heavies – King John (July 25-28) and King Lear (Sept. 12-28). Tickets are $10-$15 each per show, available at www.oklahomashakespeare.com.

Shakespeare in the Park makes its debut with the delightful Much Ado About Nothing, the comedy of love at first sight, extreme sibling rivalry and the joy of a clever insult all set in post-World War II Tulsa. Show is 8:30-11:30 p.m each night Tuesday, June 11-Sunday, June 16. The 7:30 p.m. pre-show features live 40s music and swing dance from Portico Dans Theatre at the Guthrie Green, 111 E. Brady St. This event is free. Learn more at www.guthriegreen.com.

American Theatre Company mounts the favorite tale of strangers caught in an enchanted woods, the comedy A Midsummer Night's Dream, at the lawn at Philbrook Museum of Art, 2727 S. Rockford Road. The one-night-only show will be 8-10 p.m. Friday, June 7. Tickets are $15-$20. Gates open early at 6:30 p.m., so bring a picnic to enjoy. For more, go to www.philbrook.org.

Opens Saturday, June 8

Gilcrease Museum opens the book on an exquisite collection of works by the incomparable Thomas Moran. Yellowstone and the West: The Chromolithographs of Thomas Moran opens Saturday, June 8. This exhibit of 15 chromolithographs are prints made of watercolor paintings by the esteemed Moran that were published in 1876 by Prang & Co. of Boston in the first color publication about the glorified American West, a practical portfolio called The Yellowstone National Park, and the Mountain Regions of Portions of Idaho, Nevada, Colorado and Utah. As prints, they are art in themselves, recognized as the finest chromolithographs ever produced. The exhibit runs through Sept. 8. Museum hours are 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesday-Sunday. Gilcrease is located at 1400 N. Gilcrease Museum Road. Admission is $5-$8. Learn more at www.gilcrease.utulsa.edu.

Wednesday, June 5-Sunday, June 9

What’s five-days long, 13 years in the making and on MovieMaker magazine’s list of the 20 coolest film festivals in the entire world? The deadCENTER Film Festival took its name from being located at the dead center of the U.S., and when it introduced its first collection of independent films for screening, the festival immediately assumed a vibe of originality and prairie chic. The annual event returns with another full slate of documentaries, narratives, shorts, features, horror, comedies, dramas and more. A few of the highlighted features include a drama directed by John Cassavetes called Yellow, the 2013 Sundance Film Festival pleaser Kings of Summer and a documentary, The Rolling Stones: Charlie is My Darling. Screenings and other events take place at various venues around downtown Oklahoma City. For a complete schedule, pass pricing and other information, go to www.deadcenterfilm.org.