BRITE WINTER FESTIVAL

What: An indoor-outdoor winter music and arts festival featuring dozens of bands and various styles of music.

When: Music starts at 4:15 p.m. and goes until after midnight at assorted venues.

Where: Cleveland's Ohio City Market District.

Tickets: Free.

Info: britewinter.com

All the best ideas seem crazy at first.

So it must have been one serious case of brain freeze that led a couple of Case Western Reserve University graduate students to start an outdoor music-and-arts festival in the dead of winter. But that's what Emily Hornack and Jimmy Harris did in 2010 when they started the Brite Winter Festival, a free celebration of Cleveland's music, art and, especially, winter.

"We wanted to bring a little bit of life to this season that people just tolerate instead of celebrate," said co-founder, board chair and acting executive director Hornack. "The theater season is alive and kicking, but music and art are asleep a little bit in the winter. So we started there. I literally thought we were just going to have a kegger in my backyard with a couple bands that we knew."

That first edition of Brite Winter was a bit bigger than that, drawing more than 600 people to a park in the Flats, and things have grown steadily since. After a second year in the Flats, Brite Winter moved up the hill to Ohio City, where it really hit its stride, drawing an estimated 10,000 people and 40 bands.

Starting at 4:15 p.m. today, organizers are hoping to top that. With 49 bands on seven stages -- including two outdoor stages -- spread across six venues in the Market District, it's an ambitious undertaking. It may be just as ambitious to try to decide what to see among so many bands.

Well, that's where we come in, separating the wheat from the chaff in the veritable frozen sea of local and regional acts.

For starters, there are, of course, the must-sees:

Thaddeus Anna Green (6 p.m., Brite Stage): Inspired blues-rock from Cleveland in the same vein as Jimi Hendrix and Stevie Ray Vaughan.

Dead Sweaters (6:30 p.m., Campbell's Sweets Factory Stage): Danceable garage rock from Cleveland.

Tom Evanchuck (9 p.m., Cleveland Hostel Stage): Charmingly Midwestern rock with blues and folk influences.

Total Babes (9:30 p.m., Campbell's Sweets Factory Stage): The lo-fi, thrashy and glorious side project of Cloud Nothings members not named Dylan Baldi.

But really, that's less than 10 percent of the lineup. The overriding story of Brite Winter is always the weather, and it's supposed to be 23 and snowy tonight. So, the real question is: How are you keeping warm? And with that in mind, here's how you should spend your evening at Brite Winter:

Beer: Start with a beer, of course. While there's no shortage of it in the Market District, I'm partial to the Nano Namber at Nano Brew. Feeling better? OK, you're going to start at the Brite Stage for Philadelphia songstress Lucy Stone at 5 p.m. After that, grab another beer and head to the Campbell's Sweets Factory stage for the garage rock of Dead Sweaters at 6:30 p.m.. When that's over, head upstairs to the Cleveland Hostel Stage for Old Boy at 7:00 p.m. Then it's back to the Brite Stage for folkers Lost Jon & the Ghosts at 8 p.m., then over to the Cleveland Hostel to close it out with some blues-rock from Tom Evanchuck at 9.

Whiskey: Gonna be one of those nights? It's certainly more efficient, and fantastically portable, not that we'd condone such things. So if that's how you're going to roll, start it off right with Cherry Cola Champions at 5 p.m. on the Campbell's Sweets Factory stage. After that you'll want to hit the Brite Stage for some rowdy blues rock with Thaddeus Anna Greene at 6. Next, eat. You'll need it. Then head back to Campbell's for Chicago's Dowsing at 8. You might want to eat something else before the feedback freak-out of Army of Infants at Loren Naji Gallery at 9:45. Finish out your night at Joy Machines Bike Shop with Philadelphia's Restorations at 11.

Wine: Ah, you cultured soul, you. You're clearly looking for something a bit more refined, something with soul, with terroir. But you still want to have a good time, right? Then start at Market Avenue Wine Bar, of all places, with Istvan Medgysi at 7 p.m. After that, head outside to the Brite Stage for Lost Jon & the Ghosts at 8. Then escape the cold, not to mention the beer-swilling masses, with Jeremiah Webb back at Market Avenue. at 9. Get some dinner (the Flying Fig, perhaps?) then over to the Loren Naji Gallery for Bethesda at 11. Finish up by returning to Market Avenue for the Nashville-bound Matt Hectorne and the Family Tree at midnight.