photo by: Sven Mandel/via KU

Turnstile performs at Rock am Ring in a 2023 performance in Germany.

After a nearly 20-year absence, there once again will be rocking and rolling on the Hill at the University of Kansas campus.

KU leaders on Friday announced they are restarting a once-popular annual concert event known as Day on the Hill, which in its inaugural year in 1992 featured a little band named Pearl Jam. This year, multiple Grammy-winning band Turnstile will be the headliner for an evening of music on Oct. 6.

The event, which will take place on the hill overlooking KU’s football stadium, and looking up to the Campanile, will be the first such concert since 2007, according to KU officials.

But music fans likely won’t have to wait another two decades for the next version. A KU leader told the Journal-World on Friday that the restarting of the concert series is part of KU’s plan to use the football stadium and the area around it for entertainment events that go beyond football.

Heather Blanck, vice chancellor of strategic growth initiatives and real estate for KU, told the Journal-World via email that university leaders are circling Fall 2027 as the date when KU hopes to host its first major concert inside the stadium. That is when the east-side grandstands and related amenities are expected to be completed.

However, the concert on the Hill is a good example of how KU is planning to use other venues around the stadium. The Hill is one spot KU intends to use for concerts and other events, but the Gateway Project — which is what KU is calling the development surrounding the football stadium — also will have an outdoor plaza area that can host events. That plaza area will be just east of the stadium.

As the Journal-World has reported, KU Chancellor Doug Girod has said he envisions the stadium and the Gateway project being an attractive venue for bands and other acts that are traveling across the country and want to reach a regional or college crowd without having to book a facility the size of Arrowhead Stadium, for example.

The concerts and other such events are part of a strategy the university has for using the Gateway district to produce new revenue streams to support the university’s operations.

“Ultimately, our goal is to create consistent, year-round activity and establish the Gateway Project as a vibrant destination and central gathering place on campus,” Blanck said via email.

The university is partnering with Lawrence-based Mammoth Live — a booking agency that operates across the country — to stage the show. Josh Hunt, Mammoth co-founder, said the band Turnstile is a great act to get the concert series restarted.

“Day on the Hill is such a legendary part of Lawrence and KU music history,” Hunt said in a release. “We are beyond excited to help revive the spirit of this iconic event in modern times. We feel we couldn’t have asked for a better lineup in 2026 to honor this Kansas tradition.”

Turnstile made history this year by winning Grammy Awards in both the metal and rock categories. The band — the first to be nominated in the rock, alternative and metal categories in the same year — won a Grammy for the for Best Metal Performance for the song “Birds” and the Grammy for Best Rock Album. 

Tickets for the Oct. 6 show went on sale Friday, and can be purchased at kuconferencecenter.com.

Blanck said details for the event are still being finalized, but said the stage for the concert will be at the base of the Hill, and fans will stand or sit all the way up the Hill for the outdoor concert. The evening show is set for 6:30 p.m., and also will include performances by the artist Slayyyter and the Austin rock group Die Spitz.

Over the years, the Day on the Hill concerts attracted several major acts, including the bands They Might Be Giants and The Urge, in addition to a host of regional performers.

Blanck told the Journal-World that KU intends to consider a “variety of entertainment opportunities” for the Gateway district, and will make decisions about whether events should be hosted in the stadium, on the Hill or in the plaza based on size and other such factors.

While KU doesn’t expect its first stadium concert until Fall 2027, Blanck said she expects other events will be hosted in the Gateway district before then.

“We anticipate hosting smaller events and activities in the stadium as opportunities arise while we prepare for a marquee concert experience next fall,” Blanck said.

A development agreement that KU signed with the city for the Gateway district does put some limitations on how many major concerts the district can host, given that the stadium is next door to a residential neighborhood. The agreement states the stadium can not host more than 8 major concerts per year, and all must end by 11 p.m.. The agreement defines major concerts as those expected to attract more than 30,000 people.