For the second semester in a row, Princeton’s Lawnparties — held on Sunday — was greeted with sunshine, bright blue skies, and temperatures in the low to mid seventies. Students flocked outside of Robertson Hall to splash in the SPIA fountain, danced outside the eating clubs lining Prospect Ave., and assembled on Frist North Lawn in support of this year’s guest performers.
Unlike other Lawnparties, the Undergraduate Student Government (USG) Social Committee decided to invite two headliners this fall, singer-songwriter Daya and rapper NLE Choppa, rather than sticking to their usual lineup of a single headliner preceded by a student opener.
With this selection of two artists, USG intended to provide students with a diverse selection of music while staying within the budget, USG Social Chair Enzo Kho ’26 told The Daily Princetonian last month.
The student band Oh S*** Look Out was initially prepared to perform as an opener, but last Friday, USG and the Office of the Dean of Undergraduate Students (ODUS) connected them with the production company preparing the main stage to discuss “logistical challenges” the company had been facing. Kho said issues stemming from “delays in responses from some of the artists’ management [the headliners]” prevented them from being able to “accommodate another component.”
The student body had mixed feelings about this year’s format.
“I mean, I love Daya,” said Lily Gose ’25. “I think I’d barely heard of him [NLE Choppa] before and then I listened to some of his songs and I was like, cool. However, she noted that she preferred “laid back artists.”
“I really like how they appealed to multiple different music tastes,” said Samantha Handwerk ’26. “You have Daya, and you have NLE Choppa, so a wide variety where everyone gets a little something that they like.”
After Daya concluded her set, the audience was left waiting for NLE Choppa to come onstage. ODUS and USG planned to have the two headliners’ performances come to a hard stop at 4:50 p.m., but NLE Choppa did not come on stage until 4:17 p.m when he was originally scheduled to conclude his performance. This delay frustrated students and even led some to exit the lawn before he performed.
“It’s [Lawnparties] been good so far, except for this little pause,” Maaso Ortega ’26 told the ‘Prince’ around 4 p.m., rating the day a seven out of ten. “I’m going home to take a nap now,” he added.
For those who stayed, the concert’s enclosure ran out of water at approximately 4:10 p.m. before NLE Choppa took the stage. Students were not permitted to bring their own liquids into the Frist North lawn venue.
Seven of Princeton’s 11 eating clubs hosted separate musical guests between 1 p.m. and 2:30 p.m., offering students even more variety to the headliners. Cap and Gown Club hosted two bands, The Broken Vinyls and Arcy Drive, earlier in the day beginning at 12:15 p.m. Ivy Club, Colonial Club, Terrace Club, Tiger Inn, Tower Club, and Cottage Club were all also open for performances. Cannon Dial Elm Club remained open but did not host a performer.
Students told the ‘Prince’ they were pleasantly surprised by the artists Laundry Day, Bipolar Sunshine, and Tiffany Day, which performed respectively at Terrace, Tiger Inn, and Colonial. “I had never heard of them [Laundry Day] before and I ended up really loving their music,” said Sicile Naddeo-Gjergji ’26.
Naddeo-Gjergji said that she did not attend Lawnparties last spring as part of a pro-Palestine boycott. The spring’s festivities coincided with the 21-day “Gaza Solidarity Encampment” sit-in. “It’s nice to be back after a bit of an extended break and seeing everyone come together again,” she said. As an upperclassman, Naddeo-Gjergji also felt “a lot more relaxed because I know how to handle the Princeton workload and I’m letting myself have a bit of grace this year,” she said.
Looking ahead, students like Xaivian Lee ’26 gave the ‘Prince’ suggestions for future Lawnparties performers they would want to see grace the stage. “I’m gonna go against the grain here, I think they should get Dominic Fike for Lawnparties. I’m a big fan,” he said. “I think that would be a good ass vibe, especially when it’s nice outside … something you could experience either in the crowd or sitting further back on the lawn.”
Kho told the ‘Prince’ the USG Social Committee “was very pleased and happy with how smoothly most things went” throughout the day, adding that “while working with third parties and vendors brings its share of challenges, we handled them effectively.”
Megan Cameron is a staff News writer for the ‘Prince’ from New Windsor, N.Y.
Please send corrections to corrections[at]dailyprincetonian.com.
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