This post was updated April 28 at 7:12 p.m.

At “Music in the Garden,” it was a literal garden party.

UCLA’s Mildred E. Mathias Botanical Garden hosted the free public concert at La Kretz Garden Pavilion on Saturday afternoon, which was attended by more than 100 community members and students. Second-year global jazz studies student Sara Gorman said the event was a melting pot of genres and cultures, which featured two of her own music groups, Garden Party and 287vinyl, in addition to the student band Old Growth. Marketing specialist and venue coordinator at the botanical garden Olivia Slaby said she helped Gorman with the logistics, setup and promotion of the event. As a former musicology student, the alumnus said the event was personally rewarding for her and represented a different side of the botanical garden’s mission.

“Although our primary mission is promoting botanical and horticultural research and education, we also think this is a great space to promote the arts,” Slaby said. “And we do have a beautiful venue space right here at the La Kretz Garden Pavilion, so we wanted to get more involved with the music scene on campus.”

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287vinyl, equipped with two crates that contained dozens of vinyl records from the 1960s and 1970s, led off the event by spinning a variety of tunes, which included reggae and Ethiopian jazz tracks. Old Growth followed with a set of jazz and reggae songs before Garden Party closed the show with a blend of jazz, Motown, neo-soul and funk. Each of the afternoon’s three acts played for approximately 45 minutes. During the performances, various members of Old Growth and Garden Party expressed solidarity with the pro-Palestine encampment.

For Gorman, the event was her long-held vision as she hoped to share Garden Party’s music with an audience beyond nighttime performances for students. After plans for an Earth Day performance last year failed to materialize, the Garden Party bassist said she started planning an outdoor music event for this year.

“I had the plan of who I wanted to play and the community I wanted to create,” Gorman said. “We were initially going to do a live recording, and then we decided to make it more of a performance that people could come to.”

Jacob Williams, a second-year global jazz studies student, said the outdoor setting helped attendees relax and listen more closely to the music. The guitarist for Garden Party said concert attendees typically associate shows with crowded indoor venues. At the outdoor venue, Garden Party’s soul and R&B sounds were well suited to the organic nature of the event, he added.

Fourth-year physics student Nicholas Inzunza said he came to the event after learning about it on Instagram because he enjoys the music of the various bands and had a free afternoon. Inzunza said he sees Old Growth at house shows often, but the botanical garden offered a new way to experience their music. Inzunza added that the botanical garden represented a sanctuary and an escape from industrialism, and the vegetation surrounding the pavilion symbolized peace and harmony.

“The world is kind of on fire right now, or at least, with everything that’s been going on,” Inzunza said. “I think music at times is intended to soothe, and plants themselves are also very soothing.”

Not all of the attendees at the event had a direct affiliation with UCLA. Community member Kiyomi Mizukami said she drove out to see the show after she found the flyer on Eventbrite. Gorman said she saw students walking outside the botanical garden and a man with a child on his shoulders peering over the railing during Garden Party’s performance, and she appreciated that the free concert encouraged people from all different walks of life to attend.

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The audience was multigenerational, as Anna Gorman said she came from Pasadena to see her niece, Sara Gorman. The alumnus said she used to walk around the botanical garden during her time as a graduate student and that watching the performance under the trees was relaxing and restorative.

Slaby said most programming at the botanical garden is free and open to the public. The nonprofit strives to be welcoming and accessible to the local community, she said. The “Music in the Garden” series is set to continue with another performance May 23 to allow more local and UCLA artists to play their music in a natural setting, Slaby added.

Following the performance, Sara Gorman said having a space to experience and enjoy music was equally important to using that space for good. With the recent commencement of the Gaza solidarity encampment, the student performer said there was uncertainty surrounding the performance and that it was ultimately decided to still hold the event as a means to uplift and amplify voices. When reflecting on the afternoon as a whole, Sara Gorman ultimately said the concert reinforced community and connection for old and new faces alike and the importance of empathy and kindness.

“This is a really emotionally and physically taxing time for all of us, and it’s important to take care of others and, most importantly, take care of yourself,” Sara Gorman said. “This was a really healing performance for all of us, and I hope that it had that effect on the audience as well.”