By Steve Tawa

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) — Get ready to travel through time in the Kimmel Center plaza, at this year’s Philadelphia International Festival of the Arts (“PIFA”).

Kimmel Center president and chief executive Anne Ewers says the theme this year is, “If you had a time machine, where would you go?”

“Right here on the plaza we have our very own time machine,” Ewers said today, standing in front of a walk-through exhibit under construction (photo).  “It’s 100 feet long, with a circumference of 16 feet. It’s completely interactive, and people are going to love it.”

This year’s $5.3 million, monthlong festival will feature more than 50 events including music, dance, visual arts, theatre, puppetry, and film.

Like the first one two years ago, this festival will wind up with a massive street fair along South Broad Street (the “Avenue of the Arts”).

For the first PIFA event, which had a French theme and $10 million in Annenberg funding, organizers recreated an 81-foot-tall replica of the Eiffel Tower in the Kimmel Center plaza.  The three-week festival drew some 404,000 visitors to 135 events.  An independent study after the event indicated it generated more than $55 million in economic activity.

This year’s PIFA runs from late March through most of April.

It will showcase the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, jazz pianists like Danilo Perez and Robert Glasper, instrumentalist DJ Dan Deacon, tap dancer Savion Glover, and Philadanco, among many others.

There will be tons of free entertainment and family-friendly ticketed events including music and interactive adventures, as well as arts and crafts.