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Instead of three days of mostly local and regional acts, the festival at Hotel Congress, 311 E. Congress St., expands to five days with artists 鈥� most of them newcomers to Tucson stages 鈥� coming from around the country and beyond.

And the music won鈥檛 be the festival鈥檚 only focal point: The weekend will feature a guest lecture, a vintage clothing fair, a vinyl record fair, free regional liquor tastings, yoga and some wildly experimental desert after-parties that will go on into the wee hours.

Then there鈥檚 the food: Hotel Congress鈥檚 Cup Cafe and its sister Maynard鈥檚 Market and Kitchen are drawing inspiration from Tucson鈥檚 designation as a UNESCO World City of Gastronomy to offer special festival eats. The Ricuras de Venezuela food truck will park at the hotel for late-night eats and a Sonoran hot dog happy hour is planned for Thursday, Aug. 31.

It鈥檚 all part of the festival鈥檚 rebranding, morphing from a hyper-local showcase of Tucson and regional bands to an event highlighting national artists that are 鈥渙n that level where they are not quite a huge act but it鈥檚 all about the music and they are in it for the right reasons,鈥� said Matt Baquet, whose New York-based entertainment and promotions company, Flip Your Wig Media, curated the lineup.

鈥淲e鈥檙e going to spend a lot more money. We鈥檙e going to try to get these great new artists, expose Tucson to a lot of new artists and make it more about Tucson to a lot of very interesting, very cutting edge acts of several different genres, and put it all under one roof,鈥� said Hotel Congress Entertainment Manager David Slutes, who launched HoCo Fest in 2005 as a party to celebrate Club Congress鈥� 20th anniversary.

But Slutes and Baquet, who has worked for Hotel Congress for several years helping Slutes book talent into its Club Congress venue, realized that an event solely focused on local bands had a limited shelf life.

Last spring, Hotel Congress decided this year鈥檚 HoCo Fest needed to be bigger and bolder, so Slutes gave Baquet the go-ahead to rebrand it.

鈥淚 was pushing year after year to push it to the next level,鈥� said Baquet, a Tucson native who moved to New York last spring.

Baquet started organizing the festival in April, reaching out to his music sources nationwide to see who was available this weekend. He admitted it was a bit daunting.

鈥淚t was definitely a crazy process. I was pulling my hair out at times,鈥� he said from New York City, where he runs his company and plays drums in a band called Miserable.

Once artists started saying 鈥測es,鈥� Baquet started getting excited.

Real excited.

鈥淚t just took off. The festival was only going to be three days and it turned into five, with 40 to 50 acts coming from outside Tucson, bringing people to see our community and bringing different acts that our community is not used to to Tucson,鈥� he said.

The majority of the artists on the lineup 鈥� from veteran R&B singer/songwriter Lee Fields & The Expressions coming from New Jersey (see related story), Los Angeles producer/singer Thundercat, Virginia-based experimental electronica artist Elysia Crampton and enigmatic electronica experimentalist Yves Tumor 鈥� are making their Tucson debuts. Many have thriving below-the-radar careers, meaning you won鈥檛 hear their music on Top 40 radio. But you may hear them on KXCI, which is christening its new Hotel Congress studios as part of this weekend鈥檚 festival.

KXCI early this month took up residence in a small street-front nook of Hotel Congress that had been a hair salon. From 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 2, and Sunday, Sept. 3, radio personalities and officials will host an open house to show off their new studio, where they plan to regularly broadcast at some point.

Slutes said the genere-shattering festival, which also features local acts including Tucson rapper Lando Chill, Sergio Mendoza鈥檚 Orkesta Mendoza, singer-songwriter Karima Walker and Brian Lopez鈥檚 and Gabriel Sullivan鈥檚 band XIXA, will have Latin, punk, metal, electronica, soul, R&B and 鈥渆verything under the sun, but there is no compromises in any of it, which is the neat part of it.鈥�

鈥淚t鈥檚 boutique; it鈥檚 a music nerd鈥檚 festival for sure,鈥� he said.

Baquet said there also is a political element to the festival, starting with Crampton, who will lead a lecture at the University of Arizona on Saturday covering hot-button political issues, from queer justice and trans liberation, to disability justice and anti-colonial studies. Expect Camilo Lara to mention the red-hot U.S.-Mexico border issues when he brings his Mexico City-born Mexican Institute of Sound on Friday.

Slutes said Hotel Congress has a three- to five-year plan to fully develop the new HoCo Fest format.

鈥淚鈥檓 really convinced that we鈥檝e put together a terrific, very interesting lineup, but I think at the end of it, we just hope that enough people come and we hope the artists themselves feel like it was a valuable experience and ... leave going, 鈥楾hat was great, please have us back,鈥� he said. 鈥淭his is the direction we want to go in. ... If it鈥檚 successful, we鈥檇 love to grow it. We鈥檒l see.鈥�