Some festivals grow by getting bigger.
Making Time ∞ continues to grow by becoming stranger, deeper and harder to categorize.
The Philadelphia festival returned to the historic Fort Mifflin from September 18 to 20 with a program moving freely between techno, house, experimental electronics and live performance.
The 2026 lineup included Bicep, Theo Parrish, Daphni, Skee Mask, Dopplereffekt, Marcel Dettmann, Sandwell District, Octo Octa b2b Eris Drew, Batu, Paula Tape and Avalon Emerson among many others.
For an underground audience, that list is significant.
Detroit connections sit next to Berlin techno, UK bass experimentation, house selectors and artists operating outside conventional dance music categories.
Founder Dave P described the 2026 edition as simultaneously looking toward the future and reconnecting with the festival’s origins. Making Time began in Philadelphia in 2000 and initially combined bands and DJs, an idea that returned strongly this year with an increased number of live performances.
That philosophy helps explain why Making Time feels different from much of the American festival circuit.
Its identity does not depend on a single genre or current trend.
Instead, the event treats club music as part of a larger experimental culture where techno can coexist with bands, electronics and unexpected live formats.
In a US market increasingly populated by huge electronic festivals, Making Time remains evidence that another model can survive: smaller in cultural scale, unpredictable in programming and deeply connected to underground music.