Lincoln Garden party turned Lawn Party axed

Crowds at Lincoln’s Garden Party from years ago with plenty of students in sight. Photo: Lincoln University Students’ Association.

Lincoln’s Lawn party ’23 – aka. Garden Party with a botched facelift – has been cancelled due to poor ticket sales.

The Lincoln University Students’ Association (LUSA) said in a post on Facebook that they explored various options to keep the Lawn Party ’23 viable. However, low ticket sales made the event financially unfeasible to proceed.

“We understand that many of you were excited about attending the original Garden Party and we are sincerely sorry that we couldn't make it happen this time,” they said.

The cancellation follows shortly after LUSA president Amy Wells announced in June that the annual Garden Party would be replaced with the Lawn Party, and only Lincoln University students could attend.

Lincoln agriculture business and food marketing student Rose Cottier said the Lawn Party’s cancellation didn't faze her because she never even bought a ticket.

“The reason why Garden Party is so fun is because everyone else can go… so just being Lincoln students isn't really as exciting,” she said.

UC journalism student Eve Hyslop said the Garden Party had been such a massive event before scaling it down. By excluding UC students and turning it into Lawn Party it didn’t capture the spirit of the original event, which was all about having a big, fun celebration with friends from across the country to mark the end of the academic year.

“It was so disappointing,” she said.

Back in June, Lincoln student Reece Michelle created the "Bring Back Garden Party" petition and gathered 1,357 signatures in an attempt to try and rescue the original iconic event.

Michelle said he approached both LUSA and Lincoln's Vice-Chancellor. They informed him that the Garden Party couldn't be held due to insufficient community support for obtaining a liquor license, which is why they replaced it with the Lawn Party.

“I think the Lawn Party being cancelled kind of proved the point that we didn’t really want it in the first place, as the Garden party was a safe environment for us to celebrate our year and put Lincoln on the map,” he said.

The LUSA said Lawn Party refunds are being processed and urges students who are “thinking about celebrating the end of lectures with a flat party… to register your party [with] Good One Party Register Christchurch.”