Beastie, cowboys and questions at day one of In Between Time festival 2017

The raison d’etre of In Between Time is bringing performance and events into different spaces, which might help to explain why the festival was launched on platform 3 of Bristol Temple Meads.

There, Beastie, a strange seven-foot creature – a sort of giant twisted Moomin – frolicked, accosted strangers, attempted to get on a train, and generally perplexed and delighted most of the mid-morning passengers.

Beastie is, of course, a man in a suit and was designed by Lone Twin based on drawings and suggestions made by children. He is due to pop up all over Bristol in unexpected places so keep your eyes peeled.

In Between Time festival has become a major part of Bristol’s increasingly busy arts festival calendar.

In Between Time 2017 began with the festival’s customary gusto, as this year promises even more diversity, challenging performances and live art in bold new places than before.

The multi-disciplinary performance art festival has been going since 2001 and has brought something fresh and exciting to the Bristol art scene with each iteration.

Down at the Arnolfini on day one was festival director Helen Cole, who was full of excitement about the week ahead: “The festival is all about exploding into the city, using lots of interesting sites and spaces.”

Up and down the Arnolfini, artists were running around getting ready for their pieces, and two blindfolded cowboys had already begun a 12-hour dance:

Alex Bradley, whose piece with Bill Leslie, Come As You Are, invites participants from the audience to answer some basic questions and then stand on a revolving plinth, while Alex and Bill write descriptions of them on an LED board behind.

Their descriptions often start from the information the participants have given but veer off into fantasy.

“We don’t rehearse”, said Alex mischievously. “It only happens in the moment. We put ourselves on the line by doing it live.”

Artist Selina Thompson’s installation Race Cards is also at the Arnolfini.

“It came from a desire to flip the position I often found myself in as a black woman in white spaces,” she explained.

“I was expected to be a kind of race scholar. Being asked lots of questions and always being expected to have an answer. I wanted to flip those questions round to the white gaze.”

The installation consists of 1,000 questions written on cards in the room, all on the topic of race.

Selina added: “You have questions like, ‘What does it mean to be black?’ right through to, ‘Would R Kelly be in jail by now is the girls he had attacked and abused been white girls?’ and, ‘How do you respond to a white gay man saying he has a sassy black woman inside of him?’”

IBT’s symposium was well under way on Monday afternoon. True to form, its title pulls no punches: ‘Can live art unf*ck the world?’.

Inside an audience watched as three live art curators discussed the state of their craft: “There is this accusation that we’re this live art bubble, that we’re not speaking to anyone outside our circle.

“But we all want to get out there, I think we’re trying really hard to break out of that bubble.”

Looking at this year’s programme, they’re not doing a bad job. The next few days have a lot to offer in a number of unexpected places, and a number of unexpected ways.

Get yourself along to a show, and if you see Beastie, give him a smile.

For more information about IBT17, visit www.inbetweentime.co.uk/ibt17/programme

Read more: My Bristol Favourites: Joon Lynn Goh, In Between Time senior producer