By Lena LaJoy
Austin Shepard and Nic Vansteenberghe — Love Island season seven stars — visited Cornerstone Grill and Loft and Terrapin’s Turf to meet fans at the University of Maryland.
Love Island USA blew up after season six featured big personalities that fans fell in love with. Fans impatiently awaited season seven. Drama unfolded and fans debated over the top couple and cast members. The show featured competitions where couples competed, fans voted for their favorites and eliminated couples, according to Britannica.
Shepard appeared at Cornerstone Loft and Grill on Thursday, Sept. 25. Vansteenberghe followed this event with his own at Terrapin’s Turf on Oct. 1. At both events, fans arrived excited to see the stars outside of their screens.
Senior computer science major Shayan Sobhani felt excited to see the stars in person after watching the show all summer.
“It was really cool seeing them in person, I got more of an idea of who they are as people,” Sobhani said.
The event Shepard attended at Cornerstone Loft and Grill began at 9 p.m., and students waited in lines that wrapped around both entrances of the venue for the event. Shepard arrived at Cornerstone at around 11 p.m., where he faced excited students.
“It was all girls and they were pushing and going crazy like it was Justin Bieber in 2012,” junior communications major Gail Karimi said.
When Shepard entered, he went to Cornerstone’s upstairs area and worked behind the bar. He then moved through the crowd behind the DJ booth, where he partied with fans, according to Karimi.
Karimi said students packed in on Shepard, and one of her friends became lost in the crowd. Because of the crowd, Karimi and her friends left before they could film Shepard.
Vansteenberghe’s event was a part of a tour with Greekfest, a company that highlights different celebrities to meet college students, according to their website. Vansteenberghe also appeared at many other college towns as part of a tour with GreekFest.
The event Vansteeberghe attended began at 8 p.m., and he came out around 10 p.m. At the start, fans pushed to the front to see him. He spent the night around the whole bar and interacted with students.
“People were throwing their phones through the crowd and he was taking videos,” Sobhani said.
Vansteenberghe surprised students when his castmate Olandria Carthen joined him later in the night. Vansteenberghe and Carthen sparked a romantic relationship on Love Island, which fans saw in person at the event on Wednesday. The couple placed second in season seven of Love Island, and they remain the only couple from the top three still together.
Sobhani said students chanted Carthen’s name until she entered the room. He said she joined Vansteenberghe behind the DJ set for the rest of the night.
Sophomore applied math and economics major Jeffrey Karpelson loved watching Love Island mainly because of the emotional rawness captured.
“I like Love Island because it deals with the humanity of people,” Karpelson said. “You know these people are their rawest, most emotional selves, they make themselves vulnerable trying to find love.”
After Shepard and Vansteenberghe’s summer in paradise, they arrived back in the United States, where fans everywhere wanted to meet them. Both traveled across the country to different college towns to meet fans.
Students still showed up for the Love Island stars even though the events occurred during the school week and in the midst of midterm exams. Students like Karimi hope for events like this in the future.
“UMD doesn’t do many things like this since I’ve been here and I feel like … it made it more interesting,” said Karimi.
Featured Image: View of Terrapin’s Turf, which Nic Vansteenberghe visited on Wednesday, Oct. 1. Photo credit: Lena LaJoy.