Here are five of the best things from the Irish arts scene to do this week.

A PEARL of a riverside Cork site, between the gates of UCC and the city centre, is for sale for €2.5m.

All the world’s a stage for playwright and journalist Liam Heylin, whose latest play, West for the Weekend, is about a lawyer with a gambling problem.

Cork Midsummer Festival is going back to its roots as an umbrella for the city’s thriving arts scene, says Colette Sheridan.

Minoru Betsuyaku’s play, Godot Has Come, will be performed in Japanese (with English subtitles) at UCC’s Granary Theatre .

THE Irish premiere of writer and composer Ailís Ní Ríain’s play, Desolate Heaven, opens at the Everyman in Cork in a co-production with the Granary Theatre on Feb 3. Directed by Tony McCleane-Fay, Desolate Heaven stars Mary McEvoy, who plays three eccentric women in their late 50s.

Members of the public have been invited to have their say tomorrow on plans for a bike-sharing scheme in Cork.

AN Irish language play, written by Paul Mercier with music by his brother, Mel, is coming to UCC’s Granary Theatre on May 9-10 as part of a six-venue tour around Ireland.

AT Blackrock Castle Observatory tonight, the Buzz Aldrin All Stars perform a live sound-track to Spanish artist Esperenza Collado’s series of film loops, Moon.

* TODAY AT THE FESTIVAL

CORK Midsummer Festival launches today with openings that include Rian at Cork Opera House; the world premiere of Fearghus Ó Conchuir’s Starlight at Firkin Crane; Pat Kinevane in Silent at the Commodore Hotel in Cobh; Catherine Wheels’ White at the Granary Theatre; and TPO Company’s Kindur: The Adventurous Life of Icelandic Sheep at the Cork School of Music.

The stage musical adaptation of a German coming-of-age saga retains its power to unsettle, says Colette Sheridan

FROM the courts of Cork to the bright lights of Broadway.

THE Cork Jazz Festival ended on a high note last night, when Guinness confirmed it will sponsor the event for at least another two years.

THE Guinness Cork Jazz festival will hit the right note this weekend when more than E20 million will be spent in the southern capital.

Cork's Guinness Jazz Festival is expected to pump over €20m into the Cork economy over the four days of the October bank holiday weekend (Oct 24- 27).