Punx for Pups brings together punk music and puppies for one-night festival

Punx for Pups, a one-night punk rock festival that benefits a local Valley animal shelter, is coming back with 10 bands performing at Starlite Lounge in Glendale.

This year, the event will have a Howl-O-Ween theme, with the festival taking place just six days before Halloween.

Punx for Pups was started by two friends who played in the Arizona punk band The Exxes, with Morgan Saoirse playing bass and Alexandros Moustakas on the guitar.

The Exxes played in the first Punx for Pups show, one of four bands to perform.

“On the very first one we did, it was my band that I was in at the time, and then it was also some local friends of ours from the scene, just people we knew. We also had a group called the Pain Proof Punks, they are a burlesque troupe, and they do like oddity performances with it,” Saoirse says. “So it was kind of just this band of friends coming together and wanting to help out some dogs.”

The first Punx for Pups event was small, but Saoirse had a clear vision of what the show could become.

“It was more or less we did it, and we realized we knew we can do better. I'm a very competitive person with myself, and I'm like, ‘Okay, this was cool, this was fun. But like, what if we made it cooler and better?’” Saoirse says.

In October 2023, Saoirse left The Exxes and started DNR Booking, where she currently runs guest and media relations for the company.

“The reason that also helped us in making it bigger this year is because my fiance and I started a booking company. So when we did the first Punx for Pups, it was bands booking bands. This time, it's us, from a promoter's perspective, booking out these bands this way,” she says.

Saoirse, her fiancé Corey Matayabas, and Moustakas came together to plan the 2024 Punx for Pups event, with ideas on how to grow and expand the event.

This year, Punx for Pups will be at The Starlite Lounge in Glendale. The festival will feature local punk bands such as Manicdotes, TOB, Brain Cake, 10Ply, Killing Sunday, Where's Lucy?, Burgandy Jurk, Critical Miss, Rad Pinckard and Lilac Angel.

The pups side of the event will come from Arf-Anage Dog Rescue, a small dog rescue located in the city of Maricopa that specializes in moms and puppies from local shelters and the Navajo reservation.

“They're going to have some puppies available for adoption and we're going to be able to raise some really good money for them,” Saoirse says. “They're doing absolutely everything they can to help dogs in need, especially in such a rural part of the state, and it just really spoke to my heart. When they told me they were totally down to join us and be there, I knew that this was the rescue I wanted to work with.”

The festival will also have some small businesses selling products during the event, including Mama Judith’s Crochet Shoppe, Anastasia’s Bakehouse, and The Pet’s Table from Hello Fresh.

For Moustakas, he hopes the event will be the beginning of a much larger future festival.

“Five years down the road, we want this to be a pretty big annual thing, just a place where people go and celebrate the same cause, which is just helping dog shelters,” Moustakas says. “We want to make it to a point where we can possibly donate to multiple shelters at once and maybe even get a really big name attached to it, just so we can have more exposure, more money to give out.”

The 21+ event starts at 2 p.m. on October 26 at Starlite Lounge, with tickets starting at $12 online and $15 at the door.