Florida A&M University has locked in its 2026 Homecoming Concert lineup, and it is stacked with Atlanta talent: Gunna, Summer Walker, T.I. and rising artist Bellygang Kushington will headline the show at the Al Lawson Jr. Multipurpose Center on Thursday, October 22, 2026. Doors open at 5 p.m. with the concert starting at 7 p.m., and tickets are already on sale.
The announcement, detailed in a release from Florida A&M University, frames the lineup as a direct response to years of student requests for bigger, more mainstream headliners. Students can buy tickets through Ticketmaster, and non-students can do the same. Christian Aristilde, chief business development and partnerships officer at Winners Circle, said the lineup brings together dynamic voices in hip-hop and R&B for a concert designed to match FAMU Homecoming's energy, culture and legacy.
Before the university made it official, students got the news the old-fashioned way: on the video board inside Ken Riley Field at Bragg Memorial Stadium during FAMU's home football game against Albany State on August 29, 2026, according to Essence. The in-stadium reveal reportedly set off cheering in the stands and a wave of reaction on social media before the university's news release even went out.
Students Say They Asked, FAMU Listened
Caitlin Smith, FAMU's Student Government Association vice president and chair of the Student Homecoming Steering Committee, said the request came straight from the student body. “The students asked for a concert that would feel worthy of the FAMU Homecoming experience, and we listened,” Smith said, per the university's release. That sentiment echoes a pattern going back at least two years: after the 2024 homecoming concert booked GloRilla, Veeze and Anycia, student surveys specifically requested headliners like Gunna and top-tier R&B acts, according to Rattler Nation.
Brandi Tatum-Fedrick, senior vice president for advancement and enterprise partnerships & innovation and chair of the Homecoming Steering Committee, framed the week in broader terms. “FAMU Homecoming is more than a week of events; it is a homecoming in every sense of the word,” Tatum-Fedrick said. FAMU says it will announce additional details about homecoming events and activities as they become available.
Who's Playing, and Why It Matters
Gunna arrives with fresh commercial momentum. His sixth studio album, The Last Wun, debuted at No. 3 on the Billboard 200 in August 2025 after earning 80,000 equivalent album units in its first week, marking his seventh top-10 entry on that chart, per Hypebeast. Co-headliner Summer Walker is coming off her own chart-topping run: her November 2025 album Finally Over It debuted at No. 1 on Billboard's Top R&B Albums chart and No. 2 on the Billboard 200, logging the highest opening-week sales for a female R&B album in 2025, according to a report cited by Stub Stories.
T.I., described in FAMU's release as a rapper and actor with more than two decades of hits, previously performed at FAMU Homecoming during the mid-2000s height of his career, according to HBCU Gameday. His return alongside Gunna and Summer Walker rounds out an all-Atlanta bill, joined by Bellygang Kushington, whom FAMU describes as one of the region's rising artists.
The Theme, The Venue and The Bigger Weekend
This year's homecoming carries the theme “There's No Place Like The Hill,” inspired by The Wiz, the musical that starred Diana Ross and Michael Jackson. Homecoming week runs October 18 through 25, 2026, and its anchor athletic event, the football game against the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff, kicks off at 3 p.m. on October 24 at Ken Riley Field at Bragg Memorial Stadium — a venue built in 1957 with an official seating capacity of 19,633, per FAMU Athletics.
The concert itself will be held in a considerably smaller room. The Al Lawson Jr. Multipurpose Center, constructed in 2009 on FAMU's Tallahassee campus, seats 9,639 and ranks as the second-largest indoor arena in Tallahassee behind Florida State University's Donald L. Tucker Civic Center, according to FAMU Athletics. That capacity ceiling has mattered before: FAMU's October 2025 Homecoming Concert at the same venue sold out with a lineup featuring Latto, PartyNextDoor, Bossman Dlow, Boosie and G Herbo, alongside a free 20th-anniversary block party hosted by Tallahassee native T-Pain, according to Tallymoves. Winners Circle, the promoter behind this year's booking, also partnered with FAMU's Student Government Association on that 2025 show and has managed FAMU homecoming events since at least 2014, per Eventbrite listings tied to the university.
A Week That Moves Tallahassee's Economy
Homecoming week is not just a campus event — it is a significant driver for Leon County's economy. Visit Tallahassee officials have estimated pre-pandemic figures of more than 10,000 visitors generating $3.5 million in local economic impact, with total weekend attendance topping 50,000 in recent years, according to WFSU News. Hospitality businesses across the county typically hit peak occupancy during the university's homecoming week, the station reported.
With tickets already available through Ticketmaster for both students and the general public, FAMU is banking on the same demand that has defined recent homecomings on The Hill. The university's release, credited to Rachel James-Terry, senior director of strategic communications, indicates more homecoming programming details are still to come.
