It is finally here. Sweepstakes weekend.

It almost sounds as if Ed McMahon has a part of it, but he doesn’t. Only the Iowa State students will be in the spotlight.

Sweepstakes marks the final round of this year’s Varieties competition, “Spotlight on Imagination.” The top three vignette and skit groups and the best emcee group will be competing for first, second and third in each category.

This year’s Sweepstakes participants are emcees “Seven-Man Acoustical Jam” (Neil Arends, Daren Glaus, Justin Specht, Dave Strauss); and the three skits are “Searching for Stardom,” (Ki Omega, Phi Delta Theta, Pi Beta Phi), “It’s Story Time,” (Farm House, Delta Zeta) and “Eastside/Westside Story,” (The Salt Company).

So, has all of the performers’ and organizers’ hard work been worth it? They think so.

“Varieties has given me the opportunity to implement my own ideas in Varieties and on campus,” Laurine Gilbert, director of Varieties, said. “One of my biggest goals was getting more non-greek groups involved, and it is one of my biggest rewards that a non-greek group made it into Sweepstakes.”

The “non-greek” skit is “Eastside/Westside Story,” by The Salt Company. It is a skit about a serious problem at ISU — parking — and shows the sacrifices the Campanile makes to keep students happy.

“It’s been a great experience,” Amy Collins, senior in journalism and member of “Eastside/Westside Story,” said. “The competition is really tough, but it is an honor to perform. It also gives us a witnessing opportunity, a chance to show our faith in who we are and to express that through our skit.”

Being the only non-greek skit performing in Varieties has not offered any difficult challenges to The Salt Company.

“The only thing was that we didn’t know a lot of traditions behind Varieties,” Collins said. “We started from scratch compared to everyone else. We were kind of the under-dogs, but it was fun to learn the details and traditions Varieties has to offer.”

As a matter of fact, having different groups involved has been a welcome to all performers, including performers of “It’s Story Time.”

“Houses are beginning to realize that others want to get involved,” Devin Dires, junior in marketing, said.

Like The Salt Company, performers of “It’s Story Time,” a skit about a young girl who loses her imagination, have been fine-tuning the details during the last two weeks.

“We have been defining our singing and dancing,” Laura Cripple, junior in secondary education, said. “I think we have a really strong show and think if we can keep up the energy, the audience will be impressed. It’s still a tough competition.”

“The main thing is to have a good time,” Sires said. “We also hope to have good memories and build strong friendships.”

Performers of “Searching for Stardom,” a skit about Varieties, feel the same way.

“It’s great that we made it this far,” Chris Nosbisch, junior in community and regional planning, said. “There were a lot of good skits this year. We would like to finish first but just making it to Sweepstakes is great. We’re already first, second or third.”

This year’s competing vignettes are Monte Carlo (Dan Canny, Shauna Christy, Mitch Biggs), the trio of Liz Gries, Emily Gries and Jessie Phillips and The Shaggy Boys, ISU’s only a capella group.

For The Shaggy Boys, Varieties is just one of the many competitions the group is involved in.

The a capella group recently performed in the National Competition of Collegiate A Capella (NCAA) and will be performing in the Harmony Sweepstakes in Skokie, Ill., soon.

But this weekend, Varieties will be at the forefront of the group’s performing thoughts. The Shaggy Boys will be performing “I Can See Clearly Now,” “Lean on Me,” “Can’t Help Falling In Love” and “Thriller.”

“It has definitely been worth it,” Dave Derr, senior in computer science, said. “It’s nice to be able to perform and have another competition. It’s fun to do.

“We would love to win, but it’s not terribly important,” Derr continued. “We love the crowd response. It’s more fun to perform for students who enjoy it rather than at a Christmas party where people don’t care.”

The Sweepstakes performance will be judged by four judges at each show. Even President Martin Jischke will get involved and judge Saturday’s final performances. But Jishke’s presence won’t rattle these performers.

“There’s not too much room to be biased,” Nosbisch said. “The judging sheets are set up to be fair.

“It’s good for him to finally come and see something positive with the greek system, too,” Nosbisch added.

Cripple agreed. “He usually seems to be entertained by the Varieties show,” she said. “I think it’s neat that he comes to these type of things.”

The Varieties’ Sweepstakes performance is tonight at 7 p.m. and tomorrow night at 6:30 p.m. and 9 p.m.

Tickets are $6 and are available through TicktMaster and at the door.