Timothy O’Keefe juggles many projects — from his own collaborative and his record label, Cozy Music, to organizing for the Indie Arts Festival — but still finds time to DJ around the area.

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Emily Ustach

Timothy O’Keefe has been a one-man force for electronic music in Providence for years, behind his own collaborative, tfo, and his record label, Cozy Music, as well as various one-off projects. He’s also part of The Cozy Collective, a mix of acoustic and electronic music featuring Cliff Wood, Bryan Minto, Tony Teixeira and Umberto Crenca. O’Keefe, who works at the Arts and Business Council of Rhode Island, put together the musical lineup for the four stages of Saturday’s Indie Arts Festival, and along with the live bands in the park, he’s running The Tunnel of Lumina, a space for DJs and electronic music in the tunnel between the Bank of America Skating Center and Waterplace Park.

He’ll also perform there, with The Swiss Chemistry Club, a collaboration with DJ Mike Hoska. O’Keefe calls the Club a return to the roots of the genre. Indeed, the track “Defeated,” from a sampler disc of festival artists, mixes sampled dialogue with a Eurodisco feel. “We’re not using laptops or anything; we’re using actual drum machines and synthesizers and hard-wired sequencers with a mixing board, so it’s a lot more like old-style electronic music, where there are a lot of instruments on stage, and not the two of us sitting there with laptops.” It will allow the group to change things up on the fly in answer to circumstances, and adds a visual element, O’Keefe says.

It’s a big year for O’Keefe and Cozy Music, with four releases on the label coming out by the end of the summer, and four records of his own in the pipeline — tfo, The Cozy Collective, The Swiss Chemistry Club and a collaboration with Matt Everett.

The electronic-music scene in Providence is strong, O’Keefe says — there are regular DJ and dance nights at Firehouse 13 and Local 121, as well as one-off events in various places, some of which are underground. And as usual, more opportunities to present music means more music.

“It’s really a lot better. There’s so much more DJ culture, in terms of dance music and electronic music. I think it’s improved greatly, so there are more bedroom music producers.

“One of the things that hinder this is that we live in a city where everything closes really early. And a lot of times, these kinds of events require more of a late-night city.”

That problem will come to the fore in the Tunnel of Lumina, where the music begins in the daylight (at 2 p.m.) and shuts down at 11. Still, O’Keefe is optimistic.

“It’ll be an experiment to see what the DJ tunnel will be like during the day, but I think once it gets a little later, people will be into it.”

The first Indie Arts Festival will be held Saturday from 1 to 11 p.m. in Burnside Park and the Bank of America Skating Center, in downtown Providence. It’s free. Go to www.indieartsfest.com for more information. To listen to Cozy Records artists, go to www.cozymusic.org.

Thursday, Sunday

More freedom! The Rubblebucket Orchestra mixes African pop, soul and house music at the free concert series at the American Locomotive Works, 555 Valley St., tonight at 5:30. Call (401) 574-2100.

The Squirrel Nut Zippers were one of the first bands to revive big-band swing and hot jazz in the ’90s; they play sporadically these days, but they’re coming to The Towers, 35 Ocean Rd., Narragansett, on Sunday at 7 p.m. Tickets are $30; call (401) 782-2597 or go to www.thetowersri.com.

rmassimo@projo.com