Student organizations on the Iowa State University campus have joined forces to create what they’re calling the Cyclone Carnival.
The inaugural event will be held on Saturday, April 14. George Micalone, director of student activities at ISU, says the Cyclone Carnival was not created as a replacement for VIESHEA.
“Not at all,” Micalone said. “It is an expansion of the Cyclone Market program that Student Government created a few years ago.” VEISHEA was an annual springtime tradition on the Ames campus for 92 years, but it was shut down in 2014 after the event was again marred by violence.
The Cyclone Carnival will take place from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. in a lot north of Jack Trice Stadium on the day of the Iowa State spring football game. The event will feature “family-friendly” activities and an atmosphere that, according to Micalone, should attract students, faculty, and alumni.
“Carnival rides, food vendors and food trucks, performances by student organizations, and then other activities to target families – airbrush tattoos, balloon animals, an insect zoo, things like that,” Micalone said. Money raised from the Cyclone Carnival will benefit the ISU student organizations.