You might remember last year during the early hype of the Bill Belichick hire, that UNC announced a series of pre-game concerts for home games called “Chapel Thrill.” They started with alumn and former football player Chase Rice, and managed to bring some legitimately big names — probably most notable Ludacris — to town for the concerts.
Putting more events to get people going ahead of football games is a decent idea anyway, but the hype surrounding last season had UNC going all out. Of course with
the way 2025 played out, the concerts became somewhat of a punchline, as you had the likes of Ludacris playing morning timeslots ahead of noon kickoffs.
However, the idea of the series in solid, which is why they’re bringing it back for 2026. On Monday, they announced the full slate of performers for this season.
They’re kicking off the event in a large way, literally. You may not recognize the name “DJ Diesel,” but you would absolutely recognize the person. That is the name Shaquille O’Neal performs under while DJing, which he has done for several years now legitimately touring as a DJ act. Shaq did famously release rap albums during his career, but he now seems to be more in the EDM realm with these gigs.
After that, the aforementioned Chase Rice will return for the second-straight season. I can’t say I know much about the band Parmalee, although they are somewhat local, hailing from Parmale, NC. Rounding out the slate are Neon Trees, Waka Flocka Flama, and 38 Special. Those last three are all musical acts that I’ve heard of, even if I haven’t thought about any of them in a while.
All that being said, this all could be lining UNC right up for more jokes if the season goes like how a lot of us think it will. A lot of the timeslots for these games have not been announced. We could very well end up in another position where Shaq is doing his DJ Diesel thing to a group of still tired college kids at like 9 AM. Surely, every game won’t end up as a noon kickoff, but I would bet that at least two will. You can’t blame them for trying things to get some more people involved on game days, though.
With the schedule now released, are there any names on this year’s Chapel Thrill schedule that have you excited?
