More than 150 artists/bands will perform at 11 venues during the second edition of the seven-day Boston Music Festival, which kicks off on Monday.

For Revere-based rock band Rosey's Rejects, which plays Hennessy's at one of the eight Monday-night kickoff shows, the chance to break into the Boston scene - and have a shot at playing the free outdoor finale on Sept. 14 - was too enticing to pass up.

"This is one of the biggest opportunities for us in a long time," said Rosey's Rejects singer Mike Firicano. "I'd love to play in Boston City Hall Plaza. That would be crazy."

The mover behind the Boston Music Festival is Christopher Vuk, the young founder of a school for musicians of all ages, the Cambridge School of Groove.

"There are really no big festivals in Boston without (the canceled) NEMO (music conference) this year," said Vuk, who sifted through some 450 applications from would-be participants. "Boston Music Festival can fill that hole. It's smaller in scope, but it has the potential to grow exponentially. There was such a wealth of bands, to limit it to 150 was incredibly difficult."

With more than a dozen sponsors (including the Boston Herald), the Boston Music Festival combines the support-the-arts vision of the 2005-06 Northeast Stick Together Festival, with the competitive element of Emergenza. Local acts in five categories - rock, pop/r&b, classical, jazz/Latin and singer/songwriter - will vie for a chance to perform at the Harmonix/"Rock Band 2"-sponsored finale at City Hall Plaza on Sept. 14.

Winners will be decided by text-message vote by audience members and through online voting at OurStage.com. Vuk said instructions on how to vote will be supplied at each show.

As with any large-scale event, there have been some bumps in the road. The originally announced finale headliner, Bang Camaro, has pulled out due to scheduling conflicts and several bands have withdrawn.

In addition to Hennessy's and Church, participating venues include Johnny D's, the Lily Pad, the Harp, Icarus, Wonderbar, the Fireplace, Mojitos, Ned Devine's and Hurricane O'Reilly's.

For tickets ($10 for a one-day pass or $15 for full-week pass) and schedule, go to bostonmusicfestival.org.