St. Thomas music lovers came together Tuesday night at the KUST Sampler release party to celebrate what they all share in common: music.

Featuring eight musicians performing a variety of genres, the event was a collaboration between KUST Radio, the Music Industry Club and a music business class.

Music business professor Steve Cole said involving his students in this event gives them first-hand experience in the music world.

“They’re engaging in the industry, they’re creating great events and they can put it right on their resume and they can speak very intelligently, with experience, about what they’ve done,” Cole said. “Students are able to apply what we learn in class, and at the end of the semester they have something really tangible to show for it.”

Students and community members filled ASC Dance for free food and merchandise, prizes and local live music. Sophomore Jake Reynolds said the event had a great turnout.

“You never know with events if people are going to come or not, but people did. It was solid, people were definitely enjoying the music which is important,” Reynolds said.

For many people involved, the sampler event is about coming together with those who share the same interests; as KUST Station Manager Mackenzie Garrett describes it, it’s a music family.

“The music family is just how I feel really supported and comfortable at this campus,” Garrett said. “With KUST and Music Industry Club, it’s very different because you are with all these people that have such a passion for music.”

Garrett has been a part of every sampler release since the start and has been able to see it grow through the years.

“We started out playing in Scooter’s when people weren’t even really there to listen to the show,” Garrett said. “Last year we partnered with Steve Cole, who’s the head of the Music Business department, and he incorporated the sampler into his Emerging Models in the Music Industry class.”

As a first-year, KUST intern Marissa Abara has many goals for future sampler release parties, but she summed them up as the hope to expand the event.

“We just want to expand and just get more and more attention,” Abara said. “Hopefully next year, I’m thinking (we’ll) have even more artists and have it be outside.”

Though not all the musicians were able to play, it wasn’t a loss for everyone.

“A couple people didn’t perform, which is too bad, but then Syrup Finger played “I Wanna be Sedated” by the Ramones, so that made the night for me,” Reynolds said.

Cole hopes the sampler release will continue to grow and that alumni can come back to watch and know they were a part of that growth.

“What I hope is that this continues to go year after year and really become kind of part of the identity of St. Thomas,” Cole said.

Kassie Vivant can be reached at viva0001@stthomas.edu