Before “Love Island USA” star Nic Vansteenberghe was set to arrive, clusters of students in crop tops and polos refreshed Instagram stories for hints on his whereabouts.
The doors wouldn’t open until 8 p.m., but word of his Gainesville appearance had already pulled fans off campus and into midtown. MacDinton’s marked his 12th stop for GreekFest, a national college party tour known for high-energy DJ sets and celebrity hosts.
At 10:45 p.m., the bar lights dimmed and screens behind the DJ booth looped highlights from Vansteenberghe’s “Love Island” run — slow-motion kisses, poolside laughter and his most dramatic recouplings. Then, to the familiar cadence of Miley Cyrus’s “Party in the U.S.A.,” he stepped onto the platform. Dressed in jeans, a black T-shirt and a “Gator Nation” baseball cap, he smiled as hundreds of phones shot into the air.
Over the next hour, he poured shots, sprayed champagne and invited fans onto the stage, turning the booth into a blur of flashing lights and cheering students. When he grabbed the mic and shouted “Happy Friday!” — though it was a Tuesday — the crowd screamed anyway.
The MacDinton’s staff had seen chaos like this before, especially last year, when “Love Island USA” Seasons 5 and 6 star Rob Rausch appeared for another GreekFest event.
Staff members restructured the bar for the night to accommodate more people, said bartender Lily Lafone, a 21-year-old UF nursing senior. Tables were moved towards the wall to clear room for a standing crowd that pressed shoulder-to-shoulder around the DJ booth.
Even with the hype, Lafone said the crowd built slower than expected. When doors opened, about 30 people were in line, but by the time the DJ came out, roughly 100 filled the bar.
“I thought it’d be a lot more busy,” Lafone said. “But I think they’re being particular with how many people they’re letting in at a time.”
For some, the night had been circled on the calendar since tickets dropped Oct. 15. Zoe Julius, an 18-year-old UF biology freshman, said she was scrolling through social media when she spotted Vansteenberghe’s name. She immediately told her friends.
“We’ve only ever seen him on TV,” Julius said. “It’s kind of like an out-of-body thing just to see him in real life.”
Julius and her friend were one of the first in line. Originally from Austin, Texas, they’d seen festival lines back home and weren’t willing to risk missing their favorite star from the season.
“I was a Nicolandria fan from day one,” Julius said, referring to Vansteenberghe’s celebrity couple with Olandria Carthen on the show. “When they first kissed secretly, I voted for them.”
Inside, the crowd pulsed with a mix of “Love Island” fans and curious onlookers. Amid the sea of lace, leather and denim, Mara Baker, a 23-year-old UF human nutrition graduate student, stood out in a white “Mommy’s Little Meatball” T-shirt — a nod to one of Vansteenberghe’s wardrobe choices on the show.
Baker said she’d been rooting for Vansteenberghe and his now-girlfriend, Carthen, the whole season. Even though she didn’t get to meet him directly on Tuesday, she said seeing him was enough.
“The whole episode with him and Olandria raising the baby was just one of my favorites,” Baker said, referring to a particularly memorable Season 7 moment. “It was hilarious to me.”
By midnight, Vansteenberghe had sprayed two champagne bottles into the crowd, took dozens of videos on phones thrown into the booth, and did Florida State University’s Seminole chop to rile up the Gators (even though he’s a Florida Atlantic University alumnus).
After the set, fans who had purchased meet-and-greet tickets lined up near the entrance to the back bar for photos and quick hellos before the event officially wrapped.
Just as quickly as Vansteenberghe arrived, he left the villa. As students sang along to the DJ’s final tracks and staff swept empty cups off the floor, it was hard to tell if anyone noticed it was a weeknight — until they had to wake up for their classes the next morning.
Contact Aaliyah Evertz at aevertz@alligator.org. Follow her on X @aaliyahevertz1.
Aaliyah is a general assignment reporter for The Avenue. She's a second-year journalism student in her first semester at The Alligator. In her free time, she loves to bake, read and also write for Her Campus UFL.
