TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) — The Hotel Congress has celebrated an annual music festival for the last 18 years. This year, the HoCoFest is coming to an end. It is the last celebration, as the hotel is returning to its roots of how the festival started back in 2005.
The festival started with variations of local artist themes, but Entertainment Director David Slutes wanted something different. In 2016, it became an opportunity to introduce new sounds to the Tucson community.
This year, Slutes is bringing back local artists, and calling the final festival HoCo Homecoming. “We’re bringing everyone back home for one great, final display of all that’s Tucson,” he said.
The event is from Friday, Sept. 1- Monday, Sept. 4, featuring 60 bands.
Slutes says he wished he could have double the days to fill the amount of performances he actually wanted to include. Despite his wishes to bring more bands to the Hotel Congress, he still plans to make this the final HoCoFest.
“When you build a thing, and you celebrate all these reunions and you bring back all of these wonderful bands, and you have such a great time, and then you do it again, and again…it starts losing its meaning," he explained. "It’s not special anymore.”
So, Slutes and his team are working to make this last festival special. Each stage will have different genres of music and each room will provide a different experience, according to Head of Marketing at Hotel Congress Trent Valladares.
“We have all kinds of genres represented. It’s really a full experience. There’s a record fair, there are film festivals, we’re premiering new movies. And there’s quite a bit of celebration of our first lady of music here, Linda Rondstadt,” said Valladares.
For artist line-ups and ticket sales, visit HoCoFest.com.
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Reyna Preciado is a reporter for KGUN 9, she joined the KGUN 9 team in July of 2022 after graduating Arizona State University. Share your story ideas with Reyna by emailing reyna.preciado@kgun9.com or by connecting on Instagram, or Twitter.
