Prior to last Tuesday (04/08), I was totally planning on going to this and then SOME IDIOTS decided to ruin it for all of us.
I am of course talking about VEISHEA.
VEISHEA is a big Iowa State University part, originally designed to showcase the college and be fun for everyone. It is preceded by Greek Week which is full of fund-raiser competitions between the Greek houses.
The week of VEISHEA typically has tons of events and shows running all week such as cookouts, crafts, art marts, plays, competitions, etc. culminating on Saturday with a parade featuring local and campus organizations, booths all over campus, fair foods like cheese curds and funnel cake and cherry pie, a big concert, campaniling, and in the past, fireworks at midnight.
Unfortunately, this event being a college event, you get a lot of students coming in from out of town, drinking, and getting stupid along with the students from in town. VEISHEA is a huge party week. Being a good legalistic under-21, I did not drink during VEISHEA while there, and so hunted down the events I was interested in.
The parade is the best parade in Ames and you can get tons of free stuff, and all the booths give free stuff as well, along with a fun look into a variety of college organizations and you get to find awesome things like slingshot super monkeys and tiny venus fly traps in a sealed jar (which I proceeded to kill because I have a black thumb). The fireworks were awesome. There was the mid-campus run. And I love cheese curds. I had planned to go to the parade this year and probably get sunburnt again (you should see my ISU ID picture... it was shortly after a VEISHEA parade). And most of that stuff is free. The big concert cost money, but good luck NOT hearing that if you are anywhere on campus. The food costs money. But you don't have to buy that stuff.
However, in the past, there was a big riot where people set stuff on fire on the streets and VEISHEA got cancelled for a while. It was just coming back when I got to college, with the stipulation that if there was another riot, it was over for good. The police were present and they would check any bags coming on to campus. They were actually fun, running campaigns that gave out t-shirts and hats to the students, making people aware of their presence and that they just wanted to have a safe, fun VEISHEA just as much as anyone. We understood.
I guess too many years has past and people don't remember that anymore. I even have some Iowa State Alumni friends who were practically rejoicing about the riots and it getting cancelled. "I don't know," one said, when questioned. "It shows the students VEISHEA isn't invincible."
I found that highly unnecessary. But even so, a bunch of students rioted this year, on a Tuesday of all things. They knocked down light poles, flipped cars, and were complete idiots.
And VEISHEA got cancelled. Go figure. And at this point, we don't know if it is coming back. Some people disagree with the decision. I only disagree with it in as far as I am unhappy it happened. I understand it.
Depending on the news source you read, you can hear about the students with the heart of VEISHEA holding their own events to make up for it, and that cancelling VEISHEA is a bad idea, and that it hurts Ames businesses, or you can talk to people with the police who are still dealing with troublemakers even later in the week and if you drive through Ames on a nice day like Saturday turned out to be (would have been a great day for a parade), you can see people sitting on lawns in front of a bunch of houses, drinking before noon.
I really just upset I missed the parade. It has rained in previous years. This year it was 80 degrees and sunny.
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