Twenty-four local indie-rock acts will be competing in 2016’s Rock & Roll Rumble, an eagerly anticipated annual event that starts this year on April 3 at a new home, Once Ballroom in Somerville. The performers and groups partici­pating are 21st Century Fighters, Analog Heart, Abbie Barrett, Big Time Hill, the Black Cheers, Choke Up, Courage Cloak, the Devil’s Twin, the Digs, Eric Salt & the Electric City, Field Day (a quartet that includes former Globe critic Joan Anderman and current Globe design chief Dan Zedek), Goldblood & Associates, I Was Awake, Idle Pilot, Jack Romanov, Johnny Blaze & the Pretty Boys, Junior Classics, the Knock Ups, the Longwalls, Salem Wolves, Shatner, UsLights, Weakened Friends, and Worshipper.

Since 1979, local bands such as 2003 winner the Dresden Dolls have faced off in the nine-night battle of the bands. The show is currently organized by WZLX 100.7-FM’s Anngelle Wood, who hosts the station’s local-music program, “Boston Emissions.’’ Nightly lineups for the preliminary rounds will be announced March 13 on Wood’s show.

Following the preliminaries, the semifinals will be held on April 15 and 16. The final round, on April 22, will feature a special guest performance by the recently reformed New Hampshire post-hardcore band Scissorfight. Six-day passes for the Rumble’s preliminary rounds are available now for $50, at www.oncesomerville.com.

John Paul Stapleton can be reached at john.stapleton@ globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @JohnP_Stapleton.