Cleveland-based pop-punk and rap artist KennyHoopla, who opened for rapper Machine Gun Kelly on a recent tour, will perform a one-hour concert at Legends this Saturday. Doors open at 8:30 p.m. for the concert, which was organized by the Student Activities Office (SAO) and Student Union Board (SUB), before the show begins at 9 p.m. Admission is free for all Notre Dame, Saint Mary’s and Holy Cross students, though tickets are required and available to reserve online at Student Shop ND.
SAO program coordinator for student programming Camille Martinez was the primary organizer of the concert. She said she began the process of evaluating and selecting an artist for the event back in July.
“First and foremost, I took a step back and thought, 'What kind of genre is popular right now among students?'” Martinez said. “I realized that the pop-punk genre is really popular, and I wanted to make sure I brought someone to campus that I knew all the students would enjoy.”
After consulting with student workers in the SAO office, Martinez discovered KennyHoopla and reached out to his agent to negotiate the cost and design of the performance.
“I wanted to take a stab at an up-and-coming artist as well because I think it’s awesome that Notre Dame traditionally tries to bring artists to campus who are on their way to becoming more famous,” Martinez said. “This will be good for him to showcase [and] help expand his brand and get students interested in it if they didn’t know who he is.”
Sophomore Mary Laird, SUB’s concerts committee chair, said volunteers from SUB are drawing from their experience hosting the COIN concert in Legends last semester to help the primary organizers from SAO run the concert.
“SUB helped SAO plan the logistics for the event such as staffing and ticket sales,” Laird explained. “Members of the SUB Concerts Committee will be checking students in and serving as crowd control.”
Laird said she is excited to attend the concert and hopes it will provide a fun and exciting experience for members of the tri-campus community.
“The most exciting thing about this concert is still being able to bring live music [to campus] despite the new COVID protocols,” she said.
Martinez said the ticketing and check-in processes will have built-in COVID-19 safety measures. Additionally, masks will be required at the concert, and Legends’ cash bar will be closed in adherence with the University’s current policy prohibiting the sale of food and beverages at University-sponsored gatherings.
“Other than that, not too much has changed,” Martinez said. “So come try something out. This is an artist who’s becoming more popular, so you could be one of those students that sees him on his way up.”
