First: a colour theme (pink, mostly shocking pink). Second: a newspaper (with wacky comments from participating artists). Third: invitation packs for opening night (replete with VIP cards). Fourth: table decor (pink flowers, pink marshmallows). Finally: stocking their gift shop with everything from sweets in pink bubble wrap to pink fly swatters (with Knokke Biennale business cards attached).

In short: the Hoet-Bekaert gallery in downtown Ghent has brought its frisky attitude and funky methods to the beach.

"The aim is to bring national and international art lovers together at the smallest, but best organised biennale ever - in a playful way," according to the gallery. Hoet Jr, the son of famous Flemish artist and curator Jan Hoet, and Bekaert founded their gallery (with accompanying quirky bed & breakfast) in 2003 and have moved operations to Knokke for the summer.

"Small" would indeed seem to be an understatement, and this biennial has not made quite the same impact as its Venetian counterpart. Knokke's tourist office hadn't even heard of it, suggesting that I'd perhaps got the dates wrong and looking sceptically at the address I had given them. "It's a very small street. Are you sure?"

Map in hand, I headed away from the seafront towards a decidedly unglamorous cul-de-sac. I was beginning to have my own doubts. Then as I reached the bottom of the street and turned the corner, I saw a pink sign pointing to "The Biennale Knokke 2009: Better Biennale, Better Life".

"Playful" is also an understatement. As Julie Mys, who is working there for the summer, kept telling me: "It's ironic" - from the black entrance booth with the words PRESS INFO VIP in shocking pink across the top, to the miniscule gift shop, which you have to climb a wooden ladder to reach. Its tiny windows have signs saying "Shop Till you Drop" and "Blondes have more fun." (When I ask Mys why the signs are in English, she gives a mock exasperated look and replies, "It is an international biennale."

For all the joking, mocking and irony, this is an exhibition of artists' work hoping to attract collectors and casual buyers who come to Knokke for the summer holiday period. It also wants to be a place where people come to talk about art, be it on display here, in the town's numerous other galleries or on show in Venice, Basel or elsewhere on the contemporary art circuit.

The actual exhibition space is not much bigger than a single garage and so only has a small selection of works. The first piece is a donkey's head by Thai artist Surasi Kusolwong, who has exhibited at London's Tate Modern and for whom the interaction between art and spectator is central.

Hoet explains how Kusolwong often works performance art. "The leftovers from performances are a piece of art." In this case, the donkey's head, linked with the idea of burden, was originally worn on stage by a man who would go into the audience and carry a woman on his back. This performance can also be re-enacted by visitors. "If you wear the donkey's head, you can look for the most beautiful girl in the room and carry her on your back," says Hoet.

One of the matchbox series by Irish artist Caroline McCarthy, meanwhile, is mounted on the whitewashed brick wall. A canvas the size of a matchbox, she has painstakingly painted it with oil so that it actually looks like, yes, a box of matches. Each one takes about a week to create. The idea is to "mislead the visitor," Hoet explains. "People often comment in contemporary art that it is something they can do as well, but this work is very technical and takes a lot of time."

Amanda Ross Ho, who lives and works in Los Angeles, is "really crazy about cats," confirms Hoet, as we stand in front of her photograph of a girl splashing paint on herself in Jackson Pollock style - mounted on two large drums of cat food.

In addition to the artworks, the gallery has also organised performances ranging from "firework and everything" for the opening - it was one firework that they let off during the day - to music and dance. Another performance was given by Marten Spangberg, a Swedish choreographer and performance artist who was, in another gamesome move, named as the biennial's chairman. In fact, the gallery decided that Sweden would be its "Guestland".

If contemporary art is your scene, then the Knokke Biennale should be in your diary.

It's open Thursday to Sunday; for the other days of the week, the calendar is marked with "Find us on the beach", "Closed due to personal reasons" and "Might be open, not sure yet".

As Hoet Junior tells me, "Art has to be fun. We live only once."

Knokke Biennale
Until 6 September
Oud Zoute 13, Knokke

www.thebiennale.be