Spread across Durham’s sprawling downtown area, Moogfest returned to the Triangle this weekend, championing “Protest” as its focal theme of the year. The festival began Thursday and ended Sunday, featuring live performances, workshops and keynote speeches by tech professionals, such as particle physicist Kate Shaw, and musical artists, including Flying Lotus, Talib Kweli and Animal Collective.

Each year, the festival unites its changing lineup of performers and speakers, referred to respectively as Future Sound and Future Thought, under several distinct themes. This year’s particular “Protest” theme, explained on the festival’s website, poses the question, “how can we use our resources to synthesize change?”

Breniecia Reuben, known professionally as Luxe Posh, served as DJ for several acts throughout the festival. Reuben was supportive of the festival’s idea of “Protest.”

“I really think the protest stage was a great idea,” Reuben said. “The lineup for the first day was diverse and hit all the areas that are important in our political climate right now.”

Reuben was also pleased to feel more comfortable in a crowd.

“I went to shows and I wasn’t the only black girl there, and that’s what made it magical,” Reuben said. “I think if Moogfest schedules more workshops geared specifically toward women and people of color, it’ll continue to be successful.”

Set beside Motorco Music Hall, just outside the central downtown grid, the Protest Stage served as a home to many artists with politically minded performances.

Pie Face Girls, a punk band from Raleigh, played the venue’s inaugural performance of the festival. With fast tempo songs and a “Protest” ethos, the band set the mood for the rest of the night. Behind its setup, the band projected a slideshow animation of local people of color, women, and gender-nonconforming and other LGBTQ individuals. Also during Pie Face Girls’ performance of the songs “Get on the Floor” and “F— You, I’m Pretty,” the band brought out two local drag queens to lip-sync and dance.

Mykki Blanco, a self-identified trans and multi-gender person, took the stage soon after with an energized and political set.

“We must protect transgender people,” she said to a cheering crowd.

Blanco jumped into the crowd to perform the first few songs of her set, the audience encircling her as she performed and spoke.

“All lives matter, but we must protect black children,” she continued.

Blanco is an artist originally from the Raleigh area. She left home at 16 to live in New York. This was her first year playing Moogfest, and the second time she has performed in the Triangle this year.

Diversity of identity was not limited to the Protest Stage. Another artist, electronic musician Elysia Crampton, performed at The Pinhook on Thursday. The Pinhook is a venue and self-proclaimed “safer space” that frequently showcases artists who are members of the LGBTQ community, and artists of color.

Crampton is an artist that frequently incorporates her Latinx and transgender identities into her work. Showcasing the work of performers like this is what the Pinhook aims to do to promote representation in the community.

Similar political sensibilities were evident in the sets of other performers as well. Princess Nokia, a rapper from New York City, performed Friday night at Motorco Music Hall to an energetic crowd.

Halfway through her first song, Nokia identified the need to allow visible space for people of color.

“If you’re a young person of color in the audience, come up to the front right now,” Nokia said.

Nokia frequently speaks of her Taino ancestry and is adamantly vocal in her support of transgender rights and feminine sexuality, among other social and political topics.

The festival saw several other performers and speakers of underrepresented identities, such as Suzi Analogue, a black female rapper, who performed a live scoring of her own short horror film, “No Moon, No Man.” Other big-name acts included Suzanne Ciani, a veteran pioneer in electronic music, and Laurie Spiegel, known widely for her algorithmic compositions.

Moogfest will return in May 17-20, 2018.

UPDATE: this story was edited to include the dates of Moogfest’s return.