Preview of Llawn03 (Llandudno Arts Festival 2015)

There can't be many arts festivals which use such diverse locations as a cave, a pier, a ski slope, a bandstand and even a Victorian-style bathing machine to host its events, exhibitions and "happenings".

But Llawn03 – Llandudno's third annual arts festival, held over a three-day weekend in September – is full of surprises like that. The aim of Llawn is to rediscover and celebrate the rich history of the North Wales seaside resort in new and refreshing ways, not just through the usual artistic methods of theatre, dance and song, but also performance art, interactive events, an open-air theatre, and even a bus tour conducted by a drag queen!

The theme of Llawn03 is Return/ Reveal, which means Welsh artists of all disciplines will explore and reinterpret Llandudno's past, present and future from exciting new perspectives.

Shani Rhys James's Automaton

Take, for example, the festival's launch evening on Friday, September 18th – there's Powys-based Shani Rhys James's Automaton, a solitary robot which taps repetitively in a stark setting while two Edwardian dancers interact and improvise with the mechanical device; there's performance poet Martin Daws, the current Young People's Laureate for Wales, who has melded English with the Welsh language he is learning to create a special bilingual piece; and there's a highly immersive experience called Ffloc being held at a disused garage which will be blacked out and filled with live music, thick smoke and coloured projections. It's so immersive that you have to wear the overalls provided!

Joel Cockrill's Ffloc

There's plenty going on for children too – Young Voices, Old Tales invites youngsters to join Venue Cymru's Story Circles group to breathe new life into some of Wales's oldest yarns; the Little Light Dance Company's A World of Our Own is a family dance project which explores landscapes and the growth of trees, their shapes and the shelter they provide for wildlife; and then there's the Wanderbox, a custom-built contemporary art space employed by North Wales visual artist Antonia Dewhurst, who has based a new piece around eight photographs found on an undeveloped camera film from the 1970s. The photos portray a family holiday in Llandudno, but whatever became of the family...?

If it's quirky you're looking for, look no further than Eli Acheson-Elmassry's installation Sobbing House, a soft latex cast of the front of the artist's home on Anglesey. The "skin" of Eli's home will be suspended in the back yard of a disused hotel in the heart of the resort.

Acrojou's The Wheel House

Acrojou's bizarre The Wheel House sees two performers play out a narrative show within an eccentric circular set. As the set rolls along the promenade, the audience follows its progress as it demonstrates theatrical acrobatics, breath-taking moments of risk and some stunning design. Not to be missed (see the video at the foot of this blog for a taster).

There will also be a Sonic Wave Laboratory which composes new and ever-changing sounds based upon the off-shore windfarm visible from the coast of Llandudno. You can listen to the natural sounds of the turbines inside a converted Victorian bathing machine "studio".

Divina De Campo

Drag queen Divina De Campo has teamed up with artist Dymphna D'Arcy to create the Day-Glo trolley bus tour of Llandudno, paying homage to the resort's lost theatres and vaudeville history. Dymphna is your mute conductor while Divina will perform her belting lament to the passing of each lost venue as its former location is revisited.

Many of Llawn03's events are site-specific, incorporating the fabric of modern Llandudno into the tales of its past and aspirations for its future. This year's Haus of Helfa project is Lost Spaces and uses disused or abandoned buildings in the town to exhibit new work by a collective of Welsh artists, including Neil Coombs, David McBride and Ronan Devlin.

The Elephant's Cave on the Great Orme headland will play host to a dance piece entitled Cave Memory, performed by Spanish dancers Guillermo Weickert and Maria Cabeza de Vaca. The dance will draw upon the Orme's Bronze Age history, and reach as far back as pre-history and Neolithic man. Look out for a nod to the 1966 Raquel Welch classic One Million Years BC!

Kitsch & Sync's Bedraggled mermaids

There will be more dance on the prom from crazy performance artists Kitsch & Sync, whose Bedraggled will see three washed-up mermaids serenading shipwrecked sailors and singing their octopus opera! Just remember not to feed the mermaids – they might bite!

On the Saturday night the resort's Happy Valley parkland will be taken over by a live open-air cinema. As movie-goers make their way to the big screen they will pass a local artisan craft market and be entertained by film themes from Llandudno Swing Band. The film being shown is Steven Spielberg's classic 1977 sci-fi film Close Encounters of the Third Kind, chosen as the Great Orme is allegedly a hotbed for UFO sightings. The audience had better beware, and there will be competitions to find the best makeshift silver foil hat, and the best cake in the shape of the film's Devil’s Tower!

Close Encounters of the Third Kind on
the Great Orme

All three Llawn festivals have been curated by Welsh artist Marc Rees, and this will be his last, but as a swansong, he will transform the interior of the resort's Tabernacl Chapel into the installation Testimony, exploring the building's poignant political past and looking to its questionable future. Anybody who saw Marc's Patagonia 150 show in Aberdare over the summer will know that Testimony will be a treat.

All this is just a taster of the many events on offer around the town over the course of three days – I've not even touched upon Both Sitting Duet from choreographer Jonathan Burrows and composer Matteo Fargion, which takes place in a chapel vestry; or the two intrepid Victorian lady travellers who find themselves marooned on the roof of the town's theatre and proceed to abseil down the side of the building and make their way to the shoreline to dip their weary feet in the ocean; or Mr and Mrs Clark's Medicine Show Wagon, where onlookers are diagnosed with ailments they had no idea they suffered from, and given cures they will be convinced will work!

Cave Memory is a dance piece performed
in the Great Orme's Elephant Cave

And on top of that – it’s all absolutely free, although some happenings may have to be pre-booked.

Festival curator Marc Rees adds: "The programme will represent the wonderful eclectic mix for which Llawn has become renowned and offer opportunities for residents and visitors to take part in a range of free activities and events.

"The festival was originally conceived as a way to promote what those in the hospitality sector refer to as the 'shoulder season', which basically means a lull in the tourist calendar. I think Llawn has already changed that perception and we are gradually moving up towards the head, whereupon the Queen of Welsh Resorts will eventually reclaim and reposition her crown and declare proudly from atop the Great Orme!"

• A full rundown of all the events happening during the Llawn03 weekend between September 18th-20th, 2015 can be found at llawn.org, including show times, pictures, locations and maps. There will also be a Festival Information Point stationed at the town's North Western Gardens throughout the weekend.