See, that wasn’t so bad, now was it?

You didn’t get to have that big party in your dorm room this weekend, but you still had fun, didn’t you? Go ahead, admit it. You liked Veishea. You loved Veishea. You wish it was a couple of days longer, don’t you?

Veishea week has come and gone, and despite some less-than-pleasant weather, it was a big success.

Veishea organizers said this year’s events brought a great turnout from the student population as well as the community. Both Thursday’s Rock the Rec – featuring Soul Asylum – and Friday’s Dew the Rec – featuring Jay Mohr – drew decent crowds, with more than 1,000 showing up to see Mohr.

And the crowds on Welch Avenue this weekend for the Taste of Veishea and the various musical performances, including the Battle of the Bands, were large. Very large at times.

But maybe the most important and most promising thing this weekend was the lack of arrests on campus.

Only 32 people were arrested this weekend, fewer than half the total of a year ago (65). So despite all the complaining, all the whining about Veishea being dry, thankfully only 32 people were arrested, mainly for alcohol-related incidents.

The arrest totals are the lowest for a Veishea weekend in a long while, and are a far cry from the days when Veishea was a police function.

Back in 1996, when the Veishea weekend celebration was still drowning in alcohol, there were 351 arrests. A year later, that number rose to 410.

Notice the correlation here? More access to alcohol equals more arrests. And this year’s arrest numbers showed that it’s only a small minority of people who can’t enjoy Veishea without seeing themselves on the 10 o’clock news burning couches and rioting.

Wandering around Central Campus, even during times when the temperature dipped into the low 50s, there seemed to be a lot of people on campus. The streets of the parade route Saturday morning were packed.

Every tent, every presentation, every event had droves of onlookers wanting to experience everything Veishea had to offer.

From Cy’s Big Top to the catapult competition to the International Food Fair to the inflatable games on Welch Avenue, there was something for everyone to do. And those who came to celebrate Veishea this year experienced it all.

And that is what Veishea is all about – a celebration of Iowa State University and what it has to offer.

It’s certainly not a time to converge on Welch Avenue in a drunken stupor to burn old furniture. And the success this year proved that.

Believe it or not, the amazing happened this weekend: People had fun. They enjoyed themselves. They went to Veishea looking for a good time and managed to do it. And all without alcohol.

editorialboard: Andrea Hauser, Tim Paluch, Michelle Kann, Charlie Weaver, Omar Tesdell