VEISHA

Those of us familiar with the Iowa, more specifically Iowa State University, knows what VEISHA is. For all of you who are not familiar, VEISHA is a week-long celebration of the university that credits the university's original colleges. For the students, it's basically a week long party.
I went to ISU last year, and did the VEISHA thing. At the heart of VEISHA is is the free concerts it offers students, faculty and the community. One of the most exciting parts of VEISHA was crowding onto central campus to wait for the concerts to begin. Last year, Chris Cagel, Story of the Year and Mike Jones were there. Central campus was filled with vendors, giving it a carnival-like atmosphere.

This year, I plan on going back to Ames to visit old friends for VEISHA. However, I do not have much too look forward to because VEISHA changed its policy on the concerts. As of this year, they are selling wristbands in order to get into the concerts. Not only that, but they are only selling 7,000 wristbands. Almost 27,000 people go to ISU, which leaves a total of 20,000 students who are missing out on the best part of the celebration. They have also moved the concerts off of central campus to a separate location (I think it's somewhere by Hilton) Needless to say, the students were not very happy about the turn of events.

I am going to have to say that I am not very happy either. The concerts were the highlight of VEISHA. It will be interesting to see how much the atmosphere has changed when I go down there this weekend.