Q:

Time in a perfect vacuum?

If we were able to make a perfect vacuum with no forms of energy in, including all forms of light would time still go on in that vacuum and if it doesn't how would we tell that it doesn't?
Then if we could see that there is no time flowing does that mean that the energy flowing at the speed of light creates the flow of time?

A:

You have to distinguish between spacetime and proper time:
The vacuum would still continue to be part of the Minkowski spacetime continuum of the observers, in particular with respect to simultaneity (e.g. of events happening at this place before or after your experiment). If your experiment is lasting one hour, during this hour the clocks of the observers will continue to run.
But in a space without mass particles there is no clock running. That implies that there is no proper time, no duration of anything inside.

