Time Warp

History

Time Warp traces back to 1993, when Steffen Charles started organizing club nights out of his own record shop in Mannheim, Germany, booking international guest DJs into local venues around the city. Michael Hock joined him the following year, and together they staged the first event to actually carry the Time Warp name on November 26, 1994, at the Ludwigsburg Waldebene near Stuttgart, with a lineup that included Laurent Garnier, Robert Armani and Speedy J. The idea from the start was a rave built with club-level intent: real sound design and visual production rather than a field and a rig, and a booking policy built around the underground end of techno rather than whatever was breaking through commercially at the time.

The event moved to Mannheim in 1995 and never really left. Early years were financially precarious, cross-subsidized by Charles's record shop and local club nights, and the festival weathered a rough patch in the early 2000s, including police raids in 2002 and 2003 and a ticket-sales drop from around 18,000 to 9,000 between 2001 and 2003, rough enough that its 10th anniversary edition in 2003 was billed as "the big finale" out of genuine uncertainty about the festival's future. It recovered, and by 2008 was selling out every year. Cosmopop, the company that has run Time Warp ever since, was formally established in 2003 by Charles and Robin Ebinger, who'd joined the team in the late '90s. Mannheim became the festival's permanent home base in 2000, with the event settling into the Maimarkthalle, part of the city's Maimarkt fairground and exhibition complex, where it still runs today across a rotating set of themed stage designs built fresh for each edition.

Time Warp's booking philosophy has stayed consistent enough to be a running theme in coverage of the festival: a returning cast of artists including Sven Väth, Carl Cox, Richie Hawtin and Laurent Garnier alongside newer names it has helped push toward headliner status, including Amelie Lens, who topped the bill at the 2026 Mannheim edition alongside Hawtin, Väth and Adam Beyer. That harder-edged, distinctly German end of the techno spectrum, the schranz sound that grew out of Frankfurt and Cologne clubs around the turn of the millennium, found one of its main stages at Time Warp, a lineage tracked in our look at hard techno's more recent American boom.

The Mannheim edition now runs as a single continuous 19-hour night spread across five stages inside Maimarkthalle, under the festival's own "One Day | Five Stages | 19 Hours" tagline, with tiered entry times built around when people want to arrive rather than a single gate time. Alongside the German flagship, the Time Warp name has been licensed out to international editions over the decades, most short-lived, but with São Paulo emerging as the festival's second-largest market after Germany since its 2018 launch, and newer editions running in Madrid and Miami.

The festival's own artist archive, which covers every Time Warp event worldwide, shows how deep that bench runs. Sven Väth is listed back to 1995, Joseph Capriati and Marco Carola have long runs, Nina Kraviz and Charlotte de Witte are regulars, and Chris Stussy and Sara Landry have appeared since 2023. Luciano is listed from 2006 to 2019, Jeff Mills in the early 2000s, Nastia in 2018, Steve Rachmad under his Sterac alias between 2011 and 2015, and Marek Hemmann in 2009 and 2011. The official recap films from the March 2026 Mannheim edition feature Kraviz and Landry sets.

The most recent German edition ran on March 21, 2026. Time Warp Germany 2027 is set for Saturday, April 3 at the Maimarkthalle, which the festival bills as the only German edition of 2027. Admission is 18+, and no lineup has been published on the official page yet.

Getting there and practical info

Time Warp is a one-night, one-venue event, which makes the logistics simpler than at most festivals: everyone is heading to the same fairground hall in Mannheim, and the rave runs from Saturday evening into Sunday afternoon. The festival's own info page for the 2026 edition is the best guide to how the night works, and the details below should be re-checked when the 2027 version goes up.

• Venue: Maimarkthalle, part of the Maimarkt fairground, Xaver-Fuhr-Straße 101, 68163 Mannheim.
• Date and hours: Saturday, April 3, 2027. The official event page lists the night as running until 14:00 on Sunday, under the "One Day | Five Stages | 19 Hours" billing. Check the final timetable when it is published.
• Public transport (2026 info page): city tram line 6/6A to Maimarkt, city bus line 50 to Maimarkt, OEG tram line 5 to MA-Neuostheim, or S-Bahn line S2, S3 or S6 to Mannheim Arena/Maimarkt. In 2026 the ticket doubled as a free public transport pass within the VRN area, and the festival asked drinkers to leave the car at home.
• Taxi and ride-hailing: the destination to enter is Maimarkt, Xaver-Fuhr-Str. 101, 68163 Mannheim.
• Airport: Frankfurt Airport, which has a direct ICE connection to Mannheim Hauptbahnhof that takes roughly 30 to 35 minutes, according to Mannheim university and Goethe-Institut travel guides.
• Age: 18+ only, per the official event page.
• Tickets: sold through the festival's own ticket shop, linked from time-warp.de/tickets, which also lists the Time Warp editions in Colombia, Mexico, New York and Los Angeles with their own vendors. The shop link for the German edition pointed to an off-sale page on October 10, 2026, even though the event page says tickets are available, so check availability before you plan. The 2026 info page also pointed to an in-shop resale option.
• Payments (2026 info page): card-only, with debit cards, credit cards, Apple Pay, Google Pay and Samsung Pay accepted. The festival stated there were no cashless wristbands and no ATM on the premises.
• Bags and lockers (2026 info page): no large bags or backpacks, no trolleys, and nothing larger than A4 (20 by 30 cm). Lockers sit behind the entry gates.
• Accommodation and camping: not covered on the official event page, so plan a stay in Mannheim or a nearby city yourself.

FAQ

When is Time Warp in Mannheim?

The German flagship edition runs for one night each spring at Maimarkthalle in Mannheim. The 2027 edition is scheduled for Saturday, April 3, and the festival bills it as the only German edition that year.

How long does the Mannheim edition actually run?

It's built as one continuous 19-hour night across five stages, under the festival's own "One Day | Five Stages | 19 Hours" format, rather than a multi-day event with overnight breaks.

Is Time Warp only held in Germany?

No. Mannheim is the original and flagship edition, but the Time Warp name has been licensed to international editions over the years. São Paulo, running since 2018, is the festival's second-largest market by attendance after Germany, and more recent editions have run in Madrid and Miami.

Who runs Time Warp?

Cosmopop, a Germany-based promoter founded in 2003 by original Time Warp co-founder Steffen Charles and Robin Ebinger, operates the festival.

How do I get to Time Warp at the Maimarkthalle?

The venue is at Xaver-Fuhr-Straße 101 in Mannheim. For the 2026 edition the festival listed tram line 6/6A and bus line 50 to Maimarkt, tram line 5 to Neuostheim and the S-Bahn lines S2, S3 and S6 to Mannheim Arena/Maimarkt, with free VRN public transport included in the ticket.

What is the age limit at Time Warp?

Admission to Time Warp Germany is 18 and over.

Can I pay with cash at Time Warp?

For 2026 the festival stated that payment was card-only, including Apple Pay, Google Pay and Samsung Pay, with no cashless wristbands and no ATM on the premises. Check the official info page for the 2027 rules.

RTS.FM artists connected to this festival

• Amelie Lens
• Charlotte de Witte
• Chris Stussy
• Jeff Mills
• Joseph Capriati
• Luciano
• Marco Carola
• Marek Hemmann
• Nastia
• Nina Kraviz
• Sara Landry
• Steve Rachmad
• Sven Väth

Only sourced appearances at past editions or on announced lineups are listed.