MARSHALL – Southwest Minnesota State University saw a big turnout at this year’s International Gala Friday night, packing the upper conference center with cuisine, entertainment, a fashion show and a dance party to celebrate a range of cultures.

“It was awesome, we had such a good time,” SMSU Office and Administrative Specialist for the Center for International Education Jamie Leonard said. “We had a full house, definitely.”

Leonard noted that the event sold out, selling just over 230 tickets, welcoming students and community members in to enjoy a night of cultural celebration.

“We had a wonderful meal with some local international cuisine,” Leonard added.

There were 10 different performances throughout the event, adding to the fun of the night.

“We had dancers from Bangladesh and Nepal,” Leonard said. “We had some younger dancers from the Hmong community, like little ones through high schoolers, and they were adorable. We had, she’s actually one of our student workers in our office from Taiwan, she sang a Taiwanese song for us.”

“We had Sam Jeffrey, who performs around, he was our domestic artist who plays guitars and sings,” Leonard added. “We had our Himalayan dance, students from Nepal who played guitar and sang, and we had a drummer for that. We had our Mandarin Chinese class, our professor from Taiwan who’s teaching Mandarin and Chinese class, sang a song in Mandarin for us.”

Following the performances, event-goers also got to enjoy the fashion show.

“We always have a fashion show where people wear their cultural clothes, and do a little catwalk,” Leonard said. “Then, we just have a dance party for all the students after the end of everything, so they get to enjoy.”

Leonard noted that all events of the gala were enjoyed by the crowd, and the night continued on great.

The gala was the final event of International Education Week, where SMSU hosted a variety of experiences throughout last week.

There were global treats, trivia and international music all week in the student center, along with numerous Taste of Culture international potlucks each day, all leading up to the Friday night gala.