The Lucy Cavendish Students’ Garden Party has been cancelled amid disappointing ticket sales, making it the latest in a string of cancelled May Week events this year.

A statement posted to Facebook by the Garden Party Committee said that they were informing ticket-holders of the cancellation with a “heavy heart.” They explained that holding the event they had planned for Saturday 16th June was “simply not feasible.”

Committee President Nat Abbott commented that “ultimately with the ticket sales we had made, we didn’t feel that we could provide the amazing spectacle that we had hoped for and promised to our guests.” Abbott went on to say that “ideally another 200 ticket sales” would have put them in a better position. Refunds for those who had already bought tickets are to be made by Friday 25th May.

With a theme of ‘Nowhere’, the garden party was to be the College’s “inaugural May Week event,” Abbott expanded on this by saying that “with no precedent for a May Week event hosted by a Lucy student-led committee, and without outside funding or sponsorship, the event was an uphill battle,” labelling the experience a “learning curve for the committee.”

Abbott said that there are currently talks between the Committee, the College, and the Students’ Union Ents team to hold an “exciting” alternative event at the end of term.

Lucy Cavendish joins a host of other colleges that were forced to cancel or postpone their May Week events this year. Trinity Hall’s annual June Event was cancelled due to low ticket sales prior to an early deadline set by the college to break even. The Gonville & Caius May Ball was postponed to 2019 due to refurbishment plans, and Newnham’s Summer Soirée was called off following poor ticket sales.