the Republic Tigers

St. Louis’ music scene will get a workout next week with the increasingly popular PLAY:stl Music Festival and Conference, taking place at several Delmar Loop venues.

“It has been expanding fast, and we’re expecting even bigger crowds this year as people are becoming more aware of the festival,” says Laura Hamlett, the festival’s executive director. “We don’t have anything else in St. Louis like it where you can meet industry people and compatible bands and people who haven’t seen them perform before.”

From Wednesday through Sept. 19, 90 bands will participate in the PLAY:stl, including headliners Atlas Sound, the Hood Internet, the Antlers, Owen, Republic Tigers, the Life and Times, Samantha Crain & the Midnight Shivers, the Chandeliers, Capgun Coup, Anni Rossi and the Saps.

Locally, some of the featured names are One Lone Tiger, Copperview, the Incurables, Wild Tiger, the Upright Animals, Say Panther, Brothers Lazaroff, Nato Caliph, Nite Owl, Midwest Avengers, the Orbz, Illphonics, Hazard to Ya Booty and more.

About half of the bands hail from St. Louis.

“The band quality has gotten even better. We’ve seen that each year,” Hamlett says of the festival, now in its third year. “We had a ton submissions this year and had to turn down some really good bands. We feel really bad about it, but it means we had some real good stuff.”

The bands lean heavily toward indie rock, though there’s a sprinkling of singer-songwriters, Americana, alt-rock, punk, funk and hip-hop acts.

Participating venues are Blueberry Hill’s Duck Room and Elvis Room, Vintage Vinyl, Racanelli’s Cucina, Chipotle and 560 Music Center.

Hamlett says she is especially excited about the addition of the 560 Music Center at 560 Trinity Avenue as a festival venue.

“It’s a former Jewish temple that Washington University bought, and it’s a multipurpose room now,” she says. “It’s a really big room, and it can hold more people (than the other venues in the festival).”

The event also will feature workshops Sept. 19 at Cicero’s. The workshops will look at the business side of the industry, always a popular topic at the festival, along with a panel on social networking, and booking and touring. The panelists will take questions.

Though sponsorship hasn’t grown, Hamlett says, organizers were still able to do what they wanted with the festival, including increasing the number of bands.

They did get rid of the outdoor stage, however.

“It was because of the expense, to be honest,” she says. “By the time you rent all the equipment, it’s exorbitant. And the shows didn’t seem as successful as the club shows.”

– PLAY:stl Music Festival and Conference, Wednesday-Sept. 19, throughout the Delmar Loop, $15 for four days, available at Vintage Vinyl and Cicero’s, www.playstlfest.com.

– The festival’s kickoff party is at 8 p.m. Wednesday at Cicero’s. Admission is $15, which includes a wristband, or free for those with wristbands. Copperview, Red Collar, and GreyMarket will perform at the kickoff party, and there will be cheap and free drinks.