VEISHEA (pronounced "VEE-sha") is an annual week long celebration held each spring on the campus of Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa. The celebration features an annual parade and many open-house demonstrations of the university facilities and departments. Campus organizations exhibit products, technologies, and hold fund raisers for various charity groups. In addition, VEISHEA brings speakers, lecturers, and entertainers to Iowa State, and throughout its over eight decade history it has hosted such distinguished guests as Bob Hope, John Wayne, Presidents Harry Truman, Ronald Reagan, and Lyndon Johnson, and performers Diana Ross, Billy Joel, Sonny and Cher, the Goo Goo Dolls and The Black Eyed Peas. VEISHEA is the largest student run festival in the nation, bringing in tens of thousands of visitors to the campus each year.
The name of the festival is an acronym for the colleges of the university that existed when the festival was founded in 1922:
- Veterinary Medicine
- Engineering
- Industrial Science
- Home Economics
- Agriculture.
As the colleges have since been changed, the Iowa State Daily considers it no longer an acronym, and spells it Veishea, with only the first letter capitalized. Official university paraphernalia regarding the event still puts it in full caps.
Read more about Veishea: Beginning and History, Traditions, Problems