VEISHEA (pronounced "VEE-sha") was an annual week-long celebration held each spring on the campus of Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa. The celebration featured an annual parade and many open-house demonstrations of the university facilities and departments. Campus organizations exhibited products, technologies, and hold fund raisers for various charity groups. In addition, VEISHEA brought 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, Tony Bruno, 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 was the largest student run festival in the nation, bringing in tens of thousands of visitors to the campus each year.
In 2014 a disturbance led the President Steven Leath to suspend VEISHEA, and in August 2014 Leath announced that VEISHEA was being permanently discontinued with the VEISHEA name being retired.
I am the king of nothing
The emperor of emptiness
I don't have a castle
And I don't wear a crown
I recall as a small child
The dreams that I once had
Yes, I recall as a small boy
Those dreams which drove me mad
'cause I once found myself a kingdom
It was not too far away
I once found myself a kingdom
But somehow I let it slip away
So I am the king of nothing
The emperor of emptiness
And I don't have a castle
And I don't have a crown
And I recall as a small child
Those dreams I once had
I recall as a small boy
Those dreams which drove me mad
I once found myself a kingdom
And I thought that it was here to stay
Yes, I once found myself a kingdom
But somehow I let it slip away
So I am the king of nothing
The emperor of emptiness
And I don't have a castle