KU revives Day on the Hill, eyes year-round stadium district use

Day on the Hill is coming back to The Hill on Oct. 6, with Turnstile headlining and Slayyyter and Die Spitz on the bill, and the University of Kansas is using the return to advance a bigger plan for the David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium district. Doors open at 4 p.m. and the show starts at 5 p.m., with tickets going on public sale June 26 at 10 a.m. Central.

KU said the concert will be the first Day on the Hill since 2007, ending a 19-year hiatus for a campus event that began with Pearl Jam’s 1992 outdoor show on Campanile Hill. KU’s announcement says that first concert helped make the series famous, and that later editions featured acts including They Might Be Giants and The Urge alongside local and regional performers. Mammoth Live is reviving the event as part of its 20th anniversary celebration, and co-founder Josh Hunt called Day on the Hill “a legendary part of Lawrence and KU music history.”

The business case is clearer than the nostalgia. Heather Blanck, KU’s vice chancellor for strategic growth initiatives and real estate, oversees revenue-generating initiatives including conference and event management, stadium operations and real estate management, and she serves as project manager for Gateway Development. KU’s Gateway District Phase II plan calls for retail, dining, parking, residential facilities, a hotel and east grandstands for the football stadium, with the university saying the phase is meant to fully activate the district for concerts and other events throughout the year.

For KU, that means the Hill and the surrounding plaza are not just a concert site for one night in October. They are part of a larger effort to make the stadium area function as a mixed-use destination that can pull people onto the northeast corner of campus on non-game days, when spending on tickets, food, parking and lodging can add up fast. The university has also said its first major concert inside the stadium could become possible in fall 2027, once the east-side grandstands and related amenities are complete.

The revival also lands with a long financial memory attached. Lawrence Journal-World coverage from 2002 said more than 10,000 people packed Campanile Hill for Pearl Jam in 1992, while Day on the Hill that year drew about 3,000 after the peak-era crowds had faded. By 2003, the event had folded amid attendance problems and the rising cost of big-name bands, with Student Union Activities estimating about 2,500 attendees the previous year. It returned in 2006 after a four-year hiatus, helped by a new $5 student fee that roughly tripled SUA’s budgets, a reminder that the series has always risen and fallen with the economics behind it.