For more than 3,000 students and guests that RSVPed on a Facebook event page, a day of jello wrestling, beer pong and live bands seemed like the perfect way to celebrate VEISHEA, but Ames city officials did not agree.

“Hunt Street VEISHEA Block Party” has been popping up on newsfeeds for more than a week, and gained the attention of at least 3,260 partiers who confirmed on Facebook that they would be attending the event.

“It was supposed to be a block party where you could just sort of roam from house to house,” said Adam Hinners, senior in liberal studies and Hunt Street resident.

But as the number of confirmed guests increased, more and more events were suggested for the party that was set to take place Friday afternoon and continue on through the weekend.

The Facebook page gained the attention of students by advertising kegs, flip cup, beer pong, goldfish races, coolers, grills, live bands, fires, bags, beersbee, disc jockeys, jello wrestling and slip ‘n’ slides.

These activities also gained the attention of Ames Police.

“That many people in that kind of small geographic area is probably not going to lead to a successful party,” said Ames Police Officer Geoff Huff.

The police department found out about the event after it was reported to them by a few people who had noticed the Facebook posting.

Ames Police then contacted all landlords who own property on the street and teamed up with the ISU Police, VEISHEA student organizers and somebody from the dean of students to share their concerns with Hunt Street residents.

“We all went door to door and spoke to the residents, some of them had no idea that this was being planned in their neighborhood,” Huff said. “For the others we explained to them the problems that can occur from having a large event like that, it would be hard to control and there is a lot of liability involved.”

The event donned a new name Tuesday: “CANCELED – Hunt St VEISHEA Block Party.”

Paul Naylon, senior in civil engineering, was one of the party’s organizers, and said the group of guys who came up with the idea for a block party didn’t expect the Facebook event to attract so much attention in the first place.

“We planned on a few hundred and then it turned into a few thousand just like that,” Naylon said.

Naylon said they made their best attempt to get everything in order with the city by filing for a block permit and noise permit about two weeks in advance. They even had a transportation engineer come and look at the street to make sure it could be blocked off.

“By no means were we trying to go behind anyone’s back,” Naylon said. “We actually wanted the police and the city to be involved in it.”

Despite all their efforts, the permits were denied. Naylon said he feels it was fair to shut the party down due to it‘s overwhelming number of expected attendees.

“Three thousand people is a little bit out of control and that’s where I felt like it was OK for the police department to kind of close things down,” Naylon said. “I can understand where they would get worried about that.”

Riots have marred VEISHEA festivities in the past, and police said they are hoping for a celebration free of violence this year.

“I feel like that’s their main concern, they don’t want to ever see a mob that’s bigger than their power and capability,” Naylon said. “Ultimately it comes down to them enforcing the policies and if they can’t do that then that’s where they definitely draw the line.”

Although the event has officially been canceled, both Huff and Nylon agree that people are still likely to show up.

Kaitlyn Clevenstine, junior in apparel, merchandising and design production and Hunt Street resident, said she isn‘t concerned about the party being canceled.

“Everyone knows that it’s going on and so people are still going to come, as long as you’re 21 and not doing anything illegal the police can’t do anything,” she said. “It’s going to happen on every street regardless.”

Naylon’s biggest hope is that a party like this can be carried out someday in the future.

“I hope we can work out something maybe for next year, I just want full cooperation and understanding between all the parties involved,” Naylon said. “And if there is some size limit that is deemed acceptable then let that be known; I feel like there should be some way that we can okay this with the city and the police department.”

The police going door to door on Hunt Street said parties can occur, but need to remain in control: keeping within noise levels later in the night and not spilling out into yards or the street due to overcrowding; large parties with persons unknown to the resident/s wandering in and out of the house or apartment are not advisable. Students are encourage to be involved in the activities associated with VEISHEA and have a good time, albeit a safe one.

“Go to the pancake feed, go see the bands, go do all that stuff,” Huff said. “And we expect that people are going to have some parties, we expect that people are going to have some fun, but we also expect that people are going to do that responsibly.”