This Saturday, Chapel Hill hosted its fifth annual Pride Promenade as a part of the 2026 Chapel Hill-Carrboro Small Town Pride series. The event sprawled across Franklin Street, beginning at the Peace and Justice Plaza and ending at 140 West Franklin Plaza. The streets were full of vendors and performances, including photo booths, art stations, drag shows and a local all-girl punk band.
Moon Riot performed at 1 p.m. in the 90-degree heat with their bright red instruments reflecting in the hot sun. While the crowd was sparse at the start of their set, paraders flooded in as the performance intensified.
“When you get up there, and the first two minutes sink in and you get through that first song, there’s no other feeling. And it doesn’t matter what people think of you because you’re just having fun,” Jenna Dunning, electric guitarist and vocalist for Moon Riot, said.
Moon Riot, a Carrboro-based band, performed hits by The Runaways, The Cranberries, Arctic Monkeys and more at the Pride Promenade, as well as one of their new original songs.
“We classify ourselves as a punk band, and I think our sound does reflect that, but I think our message within all of our songs reflects it way more. Punk is more of a mindset,” Dunning said.
In addition to being a talented multi-instrumentalist and vocalist, Thalia Jailene is an emerging songwriter for the band. Her new song, “Anxiety ,” was inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement, and the band performed it for the first time at the promenade. The backing instruments were stripped away and the crowd leaned in, drawn closer by Jailene’s powerful vocals and melodies.
Moon Riot was originally formed as a Blondie cover band by GrrrlBands, an organization that brings together women and non-binary musicians to make connections through music. All of the band members have different musical backgrounds. Jailene had lots of experience in different groups and solo projects, but once she met Dunning and Beth Turner, Moon Riot’s bassist, something clicked.
“Being with a band, it feels so much more like a support system, and so much more magic. I feel like we’re all putting our energy into the missing parts of creating a full sound,” Jailene said.
The energy was high as Jailene and Dunning sang out, joined by Jane Baxter on drums and Alex Walker on bass guitar. While Baxter and Walker are not a part of the core band, they stepped in at the Pride Promenade so Moon Riot could continue to perform. Through the jumping and head-banging, smiles were visible on all of the performers’ faces.
“[We hope] that people have fun and feel empowered and feel the love, because it’s all about love that day,” Jailene said.
Bringing in a local band to the Pride Promenade was a way to give this year’s event more of a community focus.
“It’s been really awesome to see kind of how it has grown over the past three years, and how we’ve just incorporated more and more community input,” Darien Cropper, the marketing and communications coordinator for the town of Chapel Hill, said.
As the crowd cooled down by licking popsicles and blowing bubbles, Moon Riot was jamming out and interacting with their audience. Despite being a new group, they performed with an innate confidence in their music and message.
“We are a punk band, and we’re here to fight the power!” Dunning said.