"It's good to be weird," said Ian Smith, a showman once arrested for not wearing underpants as he abseiled down a building in a skirt.

And with that, the Bradford Festival 2004 swung into action last night with a "creatures of the dark" display at twilight through historic Lister Park.

Based on a Victorian freak show the "Carnies" (from carnivals) staged an alternative "Unfairground" with attractions on the theme of pain.

Forget bouncy castles and candy floss, this was the dark side of carnivals as they used to be.

Ian, Master of Mischief, in splendid eerie make-up, lace cuffs for elegance and spurs on his boots "to give the public a dig", joked: "We aren't quite the walking dead - but we're not too healthy.

"People love it. It's the Hammer horror effect. We create magic and then we are gone - like a bad rash!"

At 9.39pm the show staged by Mischief La Bas and their Painful Creatures opened for an hour of intrigue and wackiness in the park. The public were free to wander and stare around the individual tableaux.

Among the attractions was the Empress Stah Power, a piercing freak, and Guyan Porter's 100 white heads on sticks. All looked the same but all were different.

Sculptor Guyan said: "The idea is to get across individuality and how it can be lost. People tend to think they are all the same at first then they look closer and realise they are not."

The Glasgow-based troupe tours the country and Europe with its bizarre show and in each city recruits 12 locals to boost numbers.

Charlotte Lambert, 20, from Saltaire, was playing a witch from Hansel and Gretel.

Threading biscuits onto a necklace to entice children, she said: "It's a real laugh being able to do something so completely different - and we're not harming anybody. It is all about exploring the mischievous in everyone."

Omrana Mahmood, 22, from Frizinghall, who is studying drama at York, said: "Fairy tales were originally sinister to start with. Carnivals always had a freak show at some point."

The timing of the event - 9.39pm precisely - was linked to the planets to coincide with twilight.

The aim was to take Bradford people "out of the light and into the darkness", said Mr Smith.

And it might have been wacky and a bit weird but it was just the start, festival organiser Sheena Wrigley, Bradford Council's head of theatres, arts and festivals, was looking for.

She and a team of nine - and hundreds across the city - have made this year's festival, the 16th, the event it is.

Lasting until Tuesday, June 29, there are dozens of events for all tastes.

She said: " You need something which makes people sit up and listen. This is weird and wacky but there are lots of family events too."

At the start of the festival, now run by Bradford Council after a chequered history, she admitted to feeling " very, very nervous".

"We have some really exciting entertainment and a huge variety.

"People have to take a fresh look at the festival and not write it off as being for one group or another."

Jane Glaister, the Council's director of arts, heritage and leisure, said: " It's unexpected and expected, the mix makes festivals fun and for me Bradford Festival means the start of summer."

She hailed last night's event as a "wonderful use for the park.

"It is bringing people in and having a great experience."