Arty party on the streets of Freo

Spicy Cuban music, a pack of dirty rats and a roaming sand-printing machine are exhibits A, B and C in the case for why the Fremantle Street Arts Festival is the most diverse of its kind in the land, its director says.

The appearance of Cuban band El Son Entero - on its first tour outside the land of rum, cigars and irresistibly infectious music - is the result of a three- way partnership with like-minded festivals on the east coast.

Festival director Alex Marshall says the Easter event's growing international reach has been helped by teaming up with the Castlemaine State Festival in regional Victoria and the Ten Days on the Island festival in Tasmania.

El Son Entero will play in the Fremantle streets over the three- day festival and present its show Pasaj (Passage), a concert and filmic journey through the cultural history of Cuba, at the Fremantle Arts Centre.

The band, from Camaguey in central Cuba, will range through the Afro-Cuban dance rhythms of cha-cha, son, bolero, mambo, rumba and salsa from their historic origins in Spanish colonisation and the African slave trade.

"In Cuba they are regarded as one of the best bands in traditional son music but they have never toured out of Cuba before," Marshall says.

El Son Entero leads an international line-up that continues the festival's exploration of street performance beyond the stereotypical jugglers, fire-eaters, human statues and busking guitarists, he says.

As the festival looks to include more talent from our Asian neighbours, Japanese performers who rely more on action than words are among this year's highlights.

Yukinko Akira, a frantic skinny showman who dances and paints to the wild beats of his paint- splattered CD player, the mime- artist couple Sivouplait and the acrobatic slapstick duo Funny Bones bring a sense of fun from the land of the rising sun.

Words do count, but not for long, for Netherlands artist Gijs van Bon and his sand-writing robot Skryf, which creates poems on the pavement that quickly disappear on the wind and the footsteps of passers-by. In partnership with Fremantle Press, Skryf will "print" the poems of local poet Nandi Chinna outside the Town Hall.

Less poetic will be The Rats, a boisterous Spanish act in which a pied piper on stilts tries to wrangle a pesky rat pack.

"He has little control over the rats, unlike the book," Marshall says. "They end up in restaurants and cafes. They rummage through the bins and take off with things."

Other acts to look out for include the el loco madcap mariachi players Ole!, American water- balloon gladiators Acrobuffos' Waterbombs!, the sad-sack stilt- walking clown Lurk and bizarre baroque aristocrat Madame Bonbon.

About 100,000 people took in the festival last year and Marshall is expecting even bigger crowds next month as he looks to increase its reach and challenge people's concepts about what street theatre can be.

"Why shouldn't top-quality arts be out in the streets," he says, pointing to the recent success of The Giants.

"For a lot of people it is a gateway into the arts. They don't go to Perth Festival shows, they don't go to art galleries but they will come down to Fremantle and see a show on the street and see that the act also is playing at the Fremantle Arts Centre, so they will see it there and then maybe wander into the gallery.

"Like the fringe, street theatre and street arts open doors for people and lead them to places they otherwise might not go."

With 10 performance "pitches" scattered around the city, the festival also activates and sheds a new light on landmarks such as Victoria Quay, Fremantle Prison and the arts centre.

"It is activating the city," Marshall says. "At the end of the day the city is one of the stars of the show. The place itself is hand in glove with what makes the festival work."

While the festival is dominated by acts from interstate and overseas, Marshall says there is a pitch available for local performers wanting to try their luck.

And don't forget, if you see a hat on the footpath nearby, put some money in it and consider it old- school pay-per-view.

El Son Entero leads an international line-up that continues the festival's exploration of street performance beyond the stereotypical jugglers, fire-eaters, human statues and busking guitarists.