The Philadelphia International Festival of Arts began Thursday and will run through April 27 at various spots in the area.
The theme "If You Had a Time Machine" brings over 50 events, performances and pieces from both national and international artists to the city, not to mention more than a few local acts.
This year's idea prompts artists to explore questions of time travel, imagine what the future could bring. Many have taken this theme and applied it to the past: how could historical events contribute to the world hundreds, or even thousands of years from now?
"If You Had a Time Machine's" central exhibit, located in the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, is a 100-foot spiral that mimics a time machine. Visitors can walk through the spiral to see and hear variant visuals and sounds.
Performances will showcase around the time machine most nights, including a musical called "Flash of Time" and a comedy troupe's original piece, "Shut Your Wormhole."
According to the Associated Press, the festival will also feature the likes of Tony Award-winning choreographer and dancer Savion Glover, who will kick off opening weekend with his world premier, "Dance Space." Glover claims this time-traveling performance will "take audiences back to the beginning of the universe."
Shows by the Philadelphia Orchestra and the Philly Pops and other musical performances will depict events of the Berlin Wall's fall in 1989, Benjamin Britten's 1913 birth and the official emancipation of Puerto Rico in 1873.
PIFA's first festival, which opened in 2011 with a Parisian theme, brought in over 400,000 visitors during the span of 25 days. PIFA organizers hope for a similar, if not more impressive turnout this year.
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