It was first held in 2011 and is now planned as a biennial event with a theme, this year, of Time Machine.
100 foot long and 16 foot wide, The Time Machine fills the Kimmel Center's Great Plaza, inviting visitors to travel back in time or into the future.
"Totally interactive so people can walk through the time machine. They can grasp two rods that actually picks up their heartbeat," Anne Ewers, President & CEO of the Kimmel Center, said.
Your heartbeat is then splashed in patterns with crystals.
Enter your personal information into a computer and details of your life become intermixed with events through history.
There are 60 performing, visual and cultural organizations participating in the festival at venues all across the city.
"And they have taken defining moments in history and they have created an artistic expression of those moments," Ewers said.
"We have plays. We have musicals. We have theatre. It's just really amazing," Ed Cambron, Senior Vice President for the Kimmel Center, said.
The festival theme song is called Flash of Time.
There are free nightly performances of the musical at 7:00 and 10:30 in the Kimmel Center's lobby.
"PIFA has really become an opportunity for us to celebrate the arts and culture in Philadelphia. It's a way to put the international and national spotlight on Philadelphia and what we have to offer," Ewers said.
PIFA runs through April 27th.
Go to PIFA.org for the full schedule of performances.
