For the past eight years, Pygmalion Music Festival has brought the Champaign-Urbana and campus community the sound of both national and local musicians of the indie rock variety. This year’s festival, to be held on Sept. 26 to 28, will be no different.

With 60 artists set to play over the course of three days, the estimated 7,500 to 10,000 festival goers — the most in the festival’s history — can expect to encounter many notable names, including The Head & The Heart, The Breeders and Dawes.

However, another sound may be wafting from downtown Champaign this year — and no, it‘s not an earthquake. It’s a beat dropping.

“We’re not afraid to experiment with other genres of music,” said Seth Fein, Pygmalion’s founder. “Certainly by having emcees (like Rockie Fresh or Dessa) and DJs (like Diplo and Major Lazer) come perform, we feel like there’s a good crowd appeal there. But we’re pretty adamant that we want to maintain that rock music is pretty front and center.“

Stephen Johnson, local recording artist who has worked with An Evening With Your Mother, Mille Nomi and The Fights, is excited to return to the festival for his third year.

“I really can’t wait to see The Breeders,” he said. “I think that was a phenomenal addition to the lineup. I love to see these well-seasoned bands that have put in the mileage and have been around for quite some time and know how to play. … Although, for the most part, this festival has to me become more about seeing the local C-U bands at their peak.”

Another addition to the festival this year will be a lit fest and craft fair.

Pygmalion Lit Fest, to be held on Friday and Saturday, will feature four readings with over a dozen authors that the University department of English is helping to bring in, Fein said.

“It’s a similar motif (as the Pygmalion Music Festival), it’s just authors instead of bands,” Fein said.

The craft fair, called “The Made Fest,” will be on Saturday and will feature both handmade and vintage sellers.

“Both are 100 percent free, open to the public, for everyone to enjoy,” Fein said.

Shows will take place at various venues in Champaign-Urbana, including Canopy Club, Krannert Center for the Performing Arts, the Highdive, Exile on Main St. and Cowboy Monkey.

“I like Potty Mouth because of how original they are,” said Greg Clow, former student and local promoter/musician. “It’s a cool combination of pop punk and post-punk that can be very accessible.”

There will be two outdoor shows this year: a Friday night show in downtown Urbana and the traditional all-day Saturday event in downtown Champaign.

“I think it is a great event for the cities of Champaign and Urbana because the festival — especially with this year’s impressive lineup — draws fans from St. Louis, Chicago and Indianapolis, and surely benefits local tourism,” said Joey Gross, junior in Business.

Although the festival itself will not provide food, attendees have the chance to try out the various local restaurants, Fein said.

“I feel like we’ve got an amazing restaurant scene in Champaign and Urbana, and the idea is that people come into town and maybe go to Black Dog or Farren’s or Big Grove or wherever they wanted. … Part of that is to inspire business for the local restaurants that exist here,” Fein said.

While the local restaurants may be taking the reigns when it comes to food, Pygmalion’s sponsors, including Goose Island, Budweiser and Jameson, have the alcohol covered.

“I think that our primary directive when I founded the festival in 2005 was to bring as many great, national touring acts that I could get together to come play a particular weekend in Champaign,” Fein said. “And then also book as many awesome Champaign-Urbana bands as well, and that’s always been central to the idea of the festival and that is maintained to the day.”

For more information, visit pygmalionmusicfestival.com.

Julia can be reached at [email protected].

Editor’s note: A previous version of this article incorrectly stated that there will be outdoor shows for the first time this year. The article should have stated that this is the second year there has been outdoor shows. The Daily Illini regrets the error.