If Veishea sells all 7,000 of the divisive wristbands for this year’s Live @ Veishea concerts, it will create the second largest concert audience in the event’s history.

The 2008 Veishea general co-chairpersons, Megan Todd, senior in marketing, and Kyle Peterson, junior in marketing, said the 2007 concerts featuring rapper Mike Jones drew 12,000 people, and country artist Chris Cagle brought in 6,000 spectators.

This is not the first year presale tickets were required for Veishea concerts. The only difference this year, however, is that tickets will only be sold to ISU students, alumni, faculty and staff.

Peterson said Veishea committee members were prepared for a backlash from the community when it announced that the concert location would move from Central Campus to the marching band’s former practice field between Howe Hall and the Design Building.

“We knew it was going to be a limited number of people that we could hold at that facility,” Peterson said. “We wanted to make sure that the Iowa State family got the first chance at that number.”

The change in concert location is the result of a mathematical formula worked out by ISU Police and the Department of Environmental Health and Safety, consisting of square footage, the number of entrances and exits, and maximum capacity.

Todd said the Veishea committee considered Hilton Coliseum, Jack Trice Stadium and the Bergstrom Indoor Training Facility as locations for this year’s entertainment, but the expenses were too high and Hilton Coliseum already had an event scheduled for April 13.

“We needed a concert venue that we could control, and obviously, there is no way to control Central Campus because it’s just too huge,” Peterson said.

Currently, less than $1 per student – approximately 93 cents – comes out of student fees to fund Veishea. The money is put toward general operating expenses such as fences, portable toilets, printing and advertising.

One area of the wristband policy that has drawn criticism from the student body is the admittance of only ISU students, faculty, staff and alumni. Peterson dismissed the notion that community members would be upset about not being admitted into Live @ Veishea.

“Veishea is so much more than just Live @ Veishea,” he said. “There are families, kids and community members and wristbands don’t affect them at all.”

Jerry Stewart, director of public safety, said the implementation of the wristband policy will help predict the exact numbers of those in attendance. He said the common perception is that outdoor events should have unlimited capacity – a notion he quickly dismissed as being hard to handle from a security perspective.

Sarah Petersen, junior in child, adult and family services, said she is worried the wristband policy will create enough tension to cause rioting.

“I think it just makes me more scared actually that people are going to riot against it,” she said. “Because so many people are so angry about it, it kind of makes me nervous to go out.”

For some students, like John Feekes, senior in anthropology, the only reason to buy a wristband would be in protest.

“I’m undecided as to whether I’m going to buy a ticket or not, but if I do buy one, it would just be to have one other person not be able to go,” he said.

– Daily Staff Writer Ross Boettcher contributed to this article.