The Quebec City Summer Festival is arguably the most diversely appealing music event in North America, in the same league with the likes of Austin's South by Southwest, New Orleans' Jazz and Heritage fest and Seattle's Bumbershoot.

While many famous festivals--like Chicago Blues, Monterey Jazz, Bonnaroo and the Winter Music Conference--focus attention toward particular genres, the Quebec City Summer Festival offers a cornucopia of different tastes of music from around the world.

The festival was started in 1968 by a group of local artists and businessmen who were simply looking to liven up the city squares and parks for a few days in the summer. The initial focus, as one would expect given the setting, was on French-language artists and crowds came mainly from the greater Quebec and Montreal areas.

In contrast, organizers expect nearly 900,000 music lovers from all points on the globe to turn out to see a wildly international mix of artists during the 2005 Quebec City Summer Festival, which runs for 11 days through July 17. Fans will congregate at seven different venues to listen to Australian folk music, French hip-hop, Texas classic rock, British blues, New York punk, Canadian death metal and much more.

Now in its 38th year--an age when many such events seem to be working on automatic pilot--the Quebec fest is obvious trying to up its hip-quotient of late by booking trendy buzz bands and hot alternative rock acts. That focus is most evident during the second week of the festival, for which organizers have assembled enough hipster talent to fill up a stage at Coachella. Here's a look at some of the best bets at this year's festival:

Porcupine Tree [ tickets ] (July 14)
It's only fitting that guitarist/vocalist Steven Wilson was born in Swinging London in 1967, when British bands like Pink Floyd were bending minds and shaping new sounds at local clubs like the UFO. He's spent his career as the leader of the prog-rock outfit Porcupine Tree doing much the same things.

The highly experimental band is currently touring in support of "Deadwing," which was released in April. The CD is a groovy and spacey psychedelic palace of tripped-out, long-form compositions such as the 12-minute opus "Arriving Somewhere But Not Here" and shorter, metal-inspired pleasures like "Open Car." As good as the band is on record, Porcupine Tree reaches even greater heights live.

Dinosaur Jr. [ tickets ] (July 16)
Few bands ever created as much noise with as few players as Dinosaur Jr. did in its late '80s prime. Think Neil Young & Crazy Horse plus The Who during Keith Moon's reign, and a slice of Nirvana topped with Pixies, all mixed up in a margarita blender, and you get an inkling of the type of sonic havoc this trio could unleash.

The band's original lineup--frontman-guitarist J. Mascis, bassist Lou Barlow and drummer Murph--split up in 1989, though Mascis continued to record and perform under the Dinosaur Jr. moniker well into the '90s. Fans rejoiced early this year when it was announced that Mascis, Barlow and Murph had decided to regroup for a tour. All hail the noise.

Calexico [ tickets ] (July 17)
At a time when seemingly every new band on the block is trying to sound like Franz Ferdinand, Calexico's genre-defying sound comes across as nothing less than a breath of fresh air. The Arizona-based group--which is led by former Giant Sand-men Joey Burns and John Convertino--seamlessly combines surf, country, rock and mariachi sounds into something that is truly alternative.

Although its music is wholly colored in shades of Southwestern, Mexican and Californian musical styles, the group has traditionally connected best with European audiences. That was pretty clear when this music writer had the chance to attend a Calexico show in Madrid in 2004. The Spaniards enthusiastically embraced the band, and both moshed and flamenco-danced along with the border-crossing sounds. It was a glorious sight. Thankfully, North American audiences are beginning to catch up with their cross-Atlantic cousins when it comes to the many joys of Calexico.

The New York Dolls (July 17)
It took a call from Morrissey to persuade The New York Dolls to finally regroup in 2004. The former Smiths frontman--who once held the office of president for the U.K. chapter of the New York Dolls fan club--was the curator for the contemporary-music portion of that year's Meltdown Festival in London, and convinced the remaining members of the highly influential band to reunite to play the event. The result, which is superbly documented on the CD/DVD "Morrissey Presents The Return of the New York Dolls: Live From the Royal Festival Hall 2004," turned out so well that the band decided to stay together and do more shows.

Many of the names and fans have changed since the Dolls' '70s heyday. Three members--guitarist Johnny Thunders and drummers Billy Murcia and Jerry Nolan--died well before the London gigs. Bassist Arthur Kane would make the Royal Festival Hall shows, but, sadly, died a few weeks later due to complications from leukemia. The good news is that the current lineup, which still features longtime Dolls guitarist Sylvain Sylvain and vocalist David Johansen, can still rock the house. At an eagerly anticipated concert at The Fillmore in San Francisco last year, the 21st Century Dolls performed great versions of such glam-meets-garage classics as "Looking for a Kiss," "Trash," "Jet Boy" and "Puss N' Boots."

Read liveDaily's coverage of the Quebec City Summer Festival's opening night.

The Quebec City Summer Festival's full schedule is posted at the event's website.