---
title: Set Times Are Rumor Until Three Days Out
description: Festival set times came out three days before gates. Why the official app is the only schedule, a 2 AM set belongs to the night before, and a file to copy.
image: https://willcurran.com/hubfs/will-curran-brand/festival-set-times-night-before-featured.png
---

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Events

# Set Times Are Rumor Until Three Days Out

In June 2026, official set times came out about three days before the festival, and a repost site had one slot wrong. I kept the official app as the only schedule, filed every after-midnight set under the night it started, and kept every time in the festival's own zone.

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Will Curran Nov 11, 2026 · 5 min read

<https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwillcurran.com%2Fblog%2Ffestival-set-times-night-before>

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![An abstract dark scene: rows of schedule blocks that start faded and dashed at the top and turn solid lower down, with two orange blocks past a dashed midnight line and a clock face beside them, next to the title Set times are rumor until three days out.](https://willcurran.com/hs-fs/hubfs/will-curran-brand/festival-set-times-night-before-featured.png?width=1600&height=900&name=festival-set-times-night-before-featured.png)

In June 2026, the official set times came out about three days before the festival started. Anything before that was rumor, and even after the release, a third-party schedule site showed a different act in one Thursday night slot than the official schedule did. Two rules came out of that weekend: the festival's own app is the schedule, and a 2 AM set belongs to the night before.

## Before the release, it is all rumor

I wrote earlier about [when each Electric Forest tier sells out](https://willcurran.com/blog/electric-forest-tier-sell-out-times). That part of the planning happens months ahead. Set times came last. In 2026 they were released around June 22, for a festival that opened June 25.

They were published as images, on the festival website and inside the festival's mobile app. Other sites reposted them, and one of those reposts is where the mismatch turned up. My copy went with the official version and kept a note about the conflict, instead of quietly picking one.

Changes on the day came through the app and its notifications, the screens at the stages, and the festival's social accounts. There was a text-message sign-up on the website, but it was a marketing list with no set-time alerts.

## A 2 AM set belongs to the night before

A festival day does not end at midnight. In my copy of the official 2026 schedule, the latest sets ran to 4 AM. Each day's schedule listed those sets under the night they belonged to. A 2 AM set on Thursday's page happened in the early hours of Friday, by the calendar.

The cleanest example was the closing ceremony. It was listed on Sunday's schedule at 1:00 AM, which on any calendar is Monday.

This is where a phone calendar goes wrong. Copy the day heading and the time straight across, and a Thursday-night 2 AM set lands at 2 AM on Thursday, a full day early.

![Timeline from 6 PM Thursday to 6 AM Friday in festival time. The festival's Thursday page runs from the evening past midnight to 4 AM. An example set at 2 AM sits inside Thursday's page, is written 26:00 in the schedule file, falls at 2 AM Friday on the calendar, and is 11 PM Thursday on an Arizona clock, three hours behind. A note says that copying the day heading and the time straight across would put the set at 2 AM Thursday, a full day early. The set is made up.](https://willcurran.com/hs-fs/hubfs/will-curran-brand/festival-set-times-night-before-night-before.png?width=1440&height=940&name=festival-set-times-night-before-night-before.png)

Transit agencies solved this a long time ago. The [GTFS timetable format](https://gtfs.org/documentation/schedule/reference/) lets a service day run past 24:00, so a trip at 1:35 AM on the next day is written 25:35. I borrowed the idea for the schedule file below.

## Use the festival's clock

The festival is in Michigan, on Eastern time. I live in Arizona, which doesn't observe daylight saving time, so in late June the festival ran three hours ahead of home.

Arizona matches Pacific clocks in summer, which makes it easy to call home time Pacific. That label gives the right clock in June and the wrong one by November, when Pacific falls an hour behind Arizona.

So every time in the file stays in the festival's zone, and the zone is written at the top. A 2 AM set in Michigan was 11 PM the previous evening in Arizona, which is one more reason to file it under the night before.

## If you are about to try this

- **Get the official app installed before you leave home.** In 2026 it was the only place I could count on for both the schedule and changes on the day.
- **Treat anything before the official release as rumor.** After the release, check any other site against the official schedule before trusting it.
- **Write the time zone down first.** Use a region name like America/Detroit. A label like Pacific changes meaning in winter.
- **File late sets under the night they start.** Convert to calendar dates only at the very end.
- **Write conflicts down.** When two sources disagree, keep both with a note and go with the official one.

## Build it yourself

What it does: keeps a festival schedule in one plain text file that you can read on a phone, search, or hand to an assistant, without the after-midnight and time zone mistakes. One block per festival day, one line per set, times past midnight written as 24:00 and up. The acts below are made up.

```
# Example Fest 2026, set times
# zone: America/Detroit
# source: official app,
#   captured 2026-06-22
# 25:30 = 1:30 AM next calendar day

[Thu 2026-06-25]
Main Stage
  18:30-19:45  Act One
  20:15-21:15  Act Two
    # conflict: a repost
    # shows Act Nine here
  24:30-26:00  Act Three
    # calendar: Fri 00:30
Second Stage
  25:45-27:00  Act Four
    # calendar: Fri 01:45

[Sun 2026-06-28]
Main Stage
  25:00-25:10  Closing
    # calendar: Mon 01:00
```

To turn a line into a calendar entry: if the hour is 24 or more, subtract 24 and add one day to the date. Do that last, and set the calendar entry's time zone to the one in the header.

Give this to your AIHelp me build a set-times file for \[festival\], which runs \[dates\] in the \[time zone, e.g. America/Detroit\] zone. Use this format: a header with the zone, the source and the date I captured it, then one block per festival day and one line per set as HH:MM-HH:MM, stage and act. A festival day runs past midnight, so write sets after midnight as 24:00 and up, under the night they start. I will paste the official schedule from the festival's app or website, a day at a time. Copy it exactly, and flag any slot where another source I give you disagrees, without picking a winner. Then write a small script that converts the file into calendar events: subtract 24 from any hour of 24 or more and add a day, and keep every event in the festival's time zone. Finally, list every set that starts after midnight, so I can double-check them by hand.

If a 2 AM set has ever caught you on the wrong day, I would like to hear how.

Filed under [Events](https://willcurran.com/blog/tag/events)

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Will Curran

I spent sixteen years building one company, and I have been in the event industry since 2007. These days I write about the technology I actually use — trucks, radios, home infrastructure, and the tools that survive past the first invoice.

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