If I had a buck for every time in the last couple weeks someone has asked me “who’s playing Veishea?” or “why didn’t Veishea get a national act to play this year?” I could probably fund a national act all on my own.

But I don’t, and apparently, neither does the Veishea Entertainment Committee.

I don’t blame people for asking, after all, the concert situation surrounding Veishea is rather embarrassing. Just take a glance at the other campuses in this fine state.

The University of Iowa scored Run DMC as the headliner for its annual Riverfest.

Drake put on a free show last weekend with national acts Jackopierce and Matchbox 20 and have George Clinton coming to town this weekend for Drake Relay’s Drakefest ’97.

Even small schools like Luther have ousted Iowa State in concert offerings. After plans to host Beck fell through, they still managed to get the the Violent Femmes.

Central College in Pella treated students to Jars of Clay and The Gufs last semester.

So it seems every school in the state has been able to find an impressive headliner for its respective festival except Iowa State.

That makes little sense because you hear so much about Veishea being the largest student-organized festival in the country.

Whether that is true does not matter, Veishea is without a doubt the largest festival in the state, putting the likes of Riverfest and Drakefest to shame.

So why is it so darn hard to bring a good band to Veishea?

The Veishea Committee proved last year that money is not the real problem. Through a little persuading of the GSB, they were able to collect enough cash to attract two-thirds of the Beastie Boys.

And we can’t blame an “if I lie about bringing in a band maybe people will vote for me” chairman behind the event this year. Even if the Veishea Committee wasn’t adequately staffed, plenty of people have offered to help including the M-Shop and the Iowa State Center.

The truth is the Veishea Committee is more than willing to put forth the time and the money to bring in a national act, but there’s one element they can’t do anything about.

The element Iowa State students often seem to take for granted — fans.

Iowa and Drake don’t get better bands because they have more money, they get better bands because they have better fans.

I hear much negative talk about the Veishea Committee for not bringing in the national act “promised” last year and I can’t help but smile. Sure Veishea didn’t have a national act, they had two — Sister Machine Gun and Local H.

People just didn’t give them a chance to be national acts because neither had been completely exploited by MTV or alternative radio.

Sure Local H would do much better if they came back this year. But what’s that say about our fans? Does a band have to be Top 40 before Iowa State students check them out?

When event organizers at Iowa and Drake and even Luther and Central schedule a concert event, they don’t feel like they are rolling the dice.

They can expect that students will come out for the show.

Meanwhile, back in good old Ames, more people came to see a workshop on glass blowing than did most of the live music events during last year’s Veishea.

Just as you shouldn’t complain about a political candidate if you didn’t vote, you shouldn’t complain about a national band (or lack thereof) if you haven’t supported Veishea’s music events in the past.

The organizations and even the bars have done their parts to destroy the stereotypes of Ames being a dead music town, now it’s time for the fans to do their parts and bring that third Beastie Boy to town.

“That song ‘Under Pressure’ never would have come back by itself. So instead of knocking rap, people should appreciate it for bringing back the older songs to a younger generation.”

— The Iceman in his 1991 book “Ice By Ice”

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Corey Moss is a sophomore in journalism and mass communication from Urbandale.