IT’S a serious business when a Biennial, one of the biggest international festivals of contemporary art, is held in a city finally revelling in its year as European Capital of Culture.

Which is why all the great and good were there at St George’s Hall for an opening ceremony performed by none other than the Secretary of State for Sport and Media, Andy Burnham.

But, away from all the posh nosh canapés and high- faluting talk, the Daily Post was out on walkabout to find out what some of this year’s exhibitions have to offer the good people of Liverpool.

With a working title of MADE UP – which can be interpreted in many ways, including that cheery Liverpudlian expression of optimism – the omens were looking good for a city-wide festival subtitled “engaging art, people and place”.

It’s certainly aided by an excellent pocket-sized glossy guide book and map, listing all the sites worth visiting between now and when the festival ends on November 30. Costing just a fiver, it’s a quality, user-friendly product that’s a credit to the Biennial group and Liverpool University Press which produced it.

It proved invaluable as the Post ventured forth on a beautiful autumn day to take in what the festival had to offer. Even the most determined speed walker will find it impossible even in a weekend to take in all the exhibitions, especially taking into account the wave of activity from the Independents “fringe” which is supplementing the main event.

But here are some of the favourites I came across in a whistle-stop 150-minute trudge.

The most fun – and forget what some po-faced intellectuals may say, art has a lot to do with making you smile – was Leandro Erlich’s Carousel, or “the task of being in the right place at the right time”.

Set up in an abandoned warehouse in the hinterland behind the Baltic Fleet pub, it takes the form of a one-bedroomed apartment of bathroom, kitchen and lounge structured as a merry-go-round. After climbing on board, the fairground organ begins and the machine revolves while various items of furniture, taking the place of the horses, bob up and down. Even the toilet takes a turn.

One for big and little kids of all ages.

At the polar end of the scale, there are the haunting and downright bizarre.

A visit to the Tate, therefore, is a must. On the ground floor is David Altmejd’s the Holes consisting of two vast giants, one of which is severed at the waist, its innards trailing into the abyss.

Upstairs on the fourth floor are more than a few spellbinding images, including artist Rodney Graham’s appropriately named Dance. Set in a western saloon, it features a cowboy sitting atop the bar room joanna, gun drawn and forcing a poor unfortunate to do the dozee-doe. Elsewhere, there’s the ethereal and slightly disturbing canvases of Ged Quinn. These include Roads of Ink and Blood in which a top-hatted Porky Pig, eyes bleeding, sits astride the roof of a derelict porno cinema, set against a backdrop of a funereal sky.

Fans of the dark will also love the displays tucked away at the Fantasy Studio Project at another warehouse on Greenland Street. If littlewhitehead’s It Happened In The Corner, or the pleading voice behind a locked door, or especially the continually shattering mirror installation upstairs doesn’t send a shiver down your spine (especially if you’re alone) then I’m Pablo Picasso.

And then, of course, there’s Yoko Ono.

I’ve always had a bit of a soft spot for some of Mrs Lennon’s offbeat and plain daft works. Her growing collection of, er, donated step ladders, catchlined Skyladders for Liverpool, is set in the ruins of the bombed out church St Luke’s. There’s a positive message for all of us Liverpudlians here and it made me smile once again.

In fact, I was Made Up.

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