Since 1996, Time Warp has run out of Mannheim, Germany, building a reputation as one of techno's most uncompromising festival brands: three days, mainly indoors, mainly dark rooms, mainly DJs who don't chase crossover. It has never thrown a full US edition. That changes November 27-28, 2026, when Time Warp lands in Los Angeles for the first time, at Ace*Mission Studios inside the city's Ace Warehouses complex, a space that has never before hosted electronic music programming.

What's actually happening November 27-28?

Two days, 2pm to 2am each, 21-plus, across three stages inside the warehouses. Over 30 artists are confirmed, headlined by Richie Hawtin, Ben Klock, Loco Dice, Rødhåd, SOSA, Tiga and The Martinez Brothers. The festival is produced in partnership with Insomniac, the US promoter best known for Electric Daisy Carnival and its dance-festival portfolio, which gives Time Warp both the LA real estate and the operational muscle to run a debut of this size. Two-day General Admission and Stage Access passes go into presale September 18 at 11am PT, with general onsale following at noon PT the same day.

Why is the B2B list the real story?

Anyone can book headliners. What separates this bill from a standard festival poster is how many pairings are firsts. Blawan plays his US debut back to back with Elli Acula. Gerd Janson and Julya Karma play together for the first time anywhere, a world debut. Dennis Ferrer goes B2B with Skream, D.Dan links with Freddy K, Heidi Lawden pairs with Masha Mar, Quest joins Ryan Elliott, and SPFDJ plays alongside TOCCORORO. That is a curatorial bet, not a booking-agency default: these are pairings built for this specific weekend, not touring package deals. The bill also carves out room for the city itself, with Colored Craig, fun2bjane, John Bryars and ØNYX representing LA and California talent on the same stages.

Can a 30-year-old German brand work in Los Angeles?

That's the actual tension here. Time Warp's identity was built on European club culture: small dark rooms, extended sets, an audience fluent in techno as a genre rather than a festival category. Los Angeles is Insomniac's home turf, a market built on scale and spectacle. Time Warp's own language for the debut, on its official event page, describes bringing an "uncompromising vision to the West Coast" inside "never-before-used warehouses," promising "pure house and techno" with "no distractions, no excess." That's a direct statement of intent not to soften the format for a bigger room. Whether an American crowd raised on festival-scale dance music responds to a program this dense with left-field B2Bs, rather than a hits-first headliner run, is the actual experiment November 27-28 will settle.

"Uncompromising vision to the West Coast. No distractions. No excess."