On Friday, May 1, 2026, pop duo MKTO will take over Mendel Field for a special free concert for Villanova students. This event, organized by the Campus Activities Team (CAT), will be coupled with their weekly Food Truck Friday and close out the spring semester in style.
MKTO is made up of performers Malcolm Kelley and Tony Oller and first came onto the music scene in 2014 with a self-titled album. They were very popular throughout the 2010s, with their biggest hit being the song “Classic.”
“We wanted to do something big,” Andre Richet, assistant director for Campus Activities, said. “Especially with [Hoopsmania] and knowing hoops wasn’t happening the same way.”
When this idea was first set in motion, a middle agent sent CAT a list of artists which students combed through for names they recognized and would be excited about. The next stop was the Oreo for even more student opinions on what students are listening to right now.
“[We] just asked students, have you ever heard of any of these people?” Richet said. “We rarely played any songs from any of them, we just wanted to know if there was any name recognition.”
This process demonstrated that the pop artist category was by far the most popular with students, and from that MKTO became one of the top two picks for this event. After a date was set and coordinating the even began in earnest, it became clear that MKTO was available and would be anticipated on campus.
By bringing this concert to life, CAT is giving students an event comparable to the hoops concerts of the past to look forward to. Upperclassmen, especially the non-basketball fans out there, may have been less inclined to see the Roommates’ Show in the fall as a full replacement for the exciting concerts of past years.
“Some [students] were like … cool, I watched some people talk that I don’t know, but it’s not the same high energy kind of vibe,” Richet explained. “So it was driven by them in some ways where they’re like we still want to have something for us.”
This concert is new territory for CAT, and the structure of a free concert means that they are relying heavily on students to show up without any ticketed guarantee of numbers. Nevertheless, with advertisements posted around campus all week and MKTO being talked about among students since the announcement first dropped, there is a lot of hope rising for a successful night.
“People are saying that their friends are excited,” Richet said. “People are volunteering the information as opposed to us asking for the information. I think that coupled with something that students already enjoy, being the food truck event, [and] doubling that, having six food trucks at the concert, hopefully there’s enough to entice people.”
The numbers they do have are promising. In addition to the physical advertisements, the CAT Instagram, has also been an active place of promotion.
“It’s promising to see with analytics from the social media post alone,” Graduate Assistant for Campus Programming Andrew Rubas said. “It’s the most viewed and shared post that the Campus Activities Team has ever had. So that buzz online as well is also promising.”Â
The event will begin at 8 p.m. tonight, and over the next two hours students will be able to enjoy food and music, and be able to spend some time unwinding and having fun just before finals season truly begins next week. Hopefully, this event can even become an annual fixture.
“The idea is that we can grow this,” Richet said. “We appreciate everything we can do to support [the students]. So if there are more opportunities or other genres or things they would want to be a part of, then that is something that we’re always interested in.”
