The Scottish Storytelling Centre, in association with Traditional Arts and Culture Scotland (TRACS), is about to present five days of storytelling, music and dance which celebrate the heritage, culture and community of Edinburgh's Old Town as part of a midsummer celebration.

Events begin on Tuesday June 23 with Hare, which dramatises the final confession of notorious murderer William Hare, complete with the interruptions and contradictions of his wife Margaret.

Other events include Ladies Of Pleasure (a "guide" to what 18th-century Edinburgh had to offer for night-time entertainment, using poems by Robert Burns and other documents), a midsummer ceilidh, tours of John Knox House and tall tales delivered by storyteller James Spence.

http://www.tracscotland.org/scottish-storytelling-centre

A new £1million work of land art, funded by the Duke of Buccleuch, will launch on Sunday June 21 at Sanquhar in Dumfries and Galloway. The Crawick Multiverse is the latest "cosmic landscape" by artist Charles Jencks, whose landforms can currently be seen at Jupiter Artland, near Edinburgh, and the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art.

The Crawick Multiverse, which has transformed a former open cast coal mine into a 55-acre visitor attraction, will officially open to the public on Friday July 10, but tickets are available for a special launch event this weekend to coincide with the summer solstice, featuring a programme of music, poetry and performance.

Tickets costing £10 for adults, £7.50 concession, £5 for children, with under-fives free (as well as family tickets for £25) are available from the website, from A' The Airts in Sanquhar and from Kirkconnel Parish Heritage Society. Details about parking and shuttle buses are also available online.

www.crawickmultiverse.co.uk/launch-event

Ron Sexsmith has announced an Edinburgh gig for later this year. The Canadian singer-songwriter, who recently released his 14th studio album, Carousel One, will play the Pleasance Theatre on October 15. As previously announced, Sexsmith comes to The Art School in Glasgow on June 25.

www.ronsexsmith.com

The annual LeithLate festival, which opened on Friday, has expanded its format this year with a programme of events that runs until September. An exhibition by artist Kirsty Whiten, Wronger Rites, is already on display at Whitespace Gallery in Gayfield Square, just off Leith Walk. In the run-up to its opening, Whiten has installed a number of public artworks around Leith including a mural at Dalmeny Street and paste-ups on Union Street and Great Junction Street.

The next event in the LeithLate programme is book/record shop Elvis Shakespeare's 10th Birthday Party on July 4, with in-store performances and a concert at Pilrig Church.

www.leithlate.co.uk