As the saying goes, "The show must go on."

For a group of about 30 volunteers, the majority of whom are SPU students working to organize a benefit concert for Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD), their hope is that the saying holds true.

Positive things have been happening with the planning for the concert, junior Conrad Reynoldson said yesterday. However, nothing was finalized by The Falcon Newspaper's deadline, so he declined to say more.

Two weeks ago, Reynoldson and his team were shocked when they found out that the "Rock for DMD Research" concert, which they had been planning since late October, would not be happening in SPU's Royal Brougham Pavilion as they had thought. The university has cited concerns about security as well as conflicts with timing.

"We had been working with Conference Services for almost one month before they said there was too much complexity and logistical concerns to throw it [the concert] here," Reynoldson said.

By that time the group had already raised $12,000 in donations to cover the cost of the concert and had made a $3,000 down payment for the bands to play.

In October, Reynoldson got the idea to have a benefit concert to raise $25,000 for research on DMD through an organization called Parent Project Muscular Dystrophy (PPMD). He himself has DMD, a condition characterized by muscles becoming weaker and the eventual loss of muscle tissue due to a malfunction of the gene that produces the protein dystrophin.

In 2001, Reynoldson and his family coordinated a silent auction which netted $100,000 for the PPMD.

"I really do believe that, as Christians, we have a moral obligation to discipleship and service," Reynoldson said. "I personally don't have the ability to go on mission trips to Third World countries, so this is my way of fulfilling that obligation."

Kalani Snyder, a senior, decided to call one of his favorite bands to see if they would be willing to perform. Pillar, a Grammy-nominated Christian rock band, happened to be looking for a date to play in Seattle for their "For the Love of the Game" tour.

Pillar agreed to perform for considerably less than their normal fee, Reynoldson said.

They investigated outside venues to hold the concert, but due to cost, availability and their desire to get SPU students involved, the team looked into having it at Royal Brougham Pavilion, Reynoldson said.

"I thought this would be a great community to get involved," he said. "College students like to attach themselves to causes and I thought that this would be a great one to give that support to."

To have the event at SPU, the group wanted to become an official ASSP club for fundraising projects. They applied for official club status in December, but senior Amber Williams said the group later found out that their application had never been reviewed.

Reynoldson said that ASSP indicated that clubs are generally not set up for fundraising and they did not receive club status.

Reynoldson then went to Matthew Koenig, associate director of University Ministries, to see if University Ministries would sponsor the event, said Dale Anderson, director of Student Programs. Koenig then directed Reynoldson to him right before winter break, Anderson said.

"Conrad was pretty anxious about finding a venue when he came to me," Anderson said.

Anderson told Reynoldson that he would put a hold on Royal Brougham for the date. A hold on Royal Brougham does not complete the reservation that is needed to hold the event, though, said Craig Kispert, associate vice president of Business and Finances.

"We were clear that we needed the venue before we made an offer to the band," Reynoldson said. He said they got the "go ahead" from the university and then made the band an offer.

"All the signs said, 'Go,'" Williams said.

"In early January, we were notified that our offer would be accepted by the bands, which then made it a binding agreement," Reynoldson said.

They then told PPMD, printed tickets and told Pillar that it would be at SPU.

On Jan. 14, Student Programs told Reynoldson that he would need to work with Conference Services to proceed with planning the event, Anderson said.

Representatives from Conference Services were unavailable when initially contacted by The Falcon. Follow-up interview requests were unanswered.

Though PPMD has developed a Web site to sell tickets for the event and the contract with the bands is through them, Reynoldson said, he and his team had been fairly independent in planning the event.

But Kispert said, because the group was not sponsored by an SPU department, the event was considered as being hosted by an outside group and had to go through Conference Services to use Royal Brougham.

"Departments understand and think this is a great cause, but it is not directly connected to the core academic causes they focus on, which would make them divert their resources," Kispert said. "The group would have had problems putting on the concert whether it was an SPU event or not during the time frame given."

Reynoldson's father Mike went to the meetings with the Conference Service representatives and did not understand it that way.

"They implied that, if they weren't an outside group, there wouldn't be the same problems," he said.

"No one ever gave an official SPU OK," Kispert said. "I see support [given to the cause], but I haven't seen anything that said, 'Go ahead and do this.'"

Events during the day of April 11 and the morning of April 12 would not allow for enough time to transform Royal Brougham into a concert venue, Anderson said.

The concerns raised in the Feb. 8 and Feb. 13 meetings, where the students were told that the concert would not be happening, existed from the beginning of discussions with the group, Kispert said. By Feb. 14, the event was taken down from the SPU events calendar.

Snyder said the group immediately started to work on solutions to the raised concerns. A friend of Reynoldson's who worked for the Seattle Police Department offered to volunteer and recruit other volunteers to provide security for the event, Reynoldson said. The bands were also bringing their own equipment and technicians for the concert.

"For every issue they raise, we had a solution," Reynoldson said. "They basically said, 'Here are some reasons, but if you gave us more time we could come up with more.'"

Kispert said, while the solutions presented by the group seemed like they could have worked to the students, the tension was with "the reality of what it would take to make the issues not arise."

"On the surface, the solutions sounded like they were workable, but Conference Services did not have that confidence," he said. "In reality, they wouldn't be able to pull it off."

Kispert said the university asked for a copy of the contract with the band so facilities could view the performance rider, which shows the electrical requirements for the bands. He said he still has not seen a copy of it.

However, Williams said the group did not know about the electrical concerns that the university had until the Seattle Post-Intelligencer published a story on Monday in which Kispert raised the concerns.

Despite the conflicts and confusion, Reynoldson said he would like to focus on the positive aspects of the concert and his vision for throwing the concert: to raise awareness and funds for PPMD.

Local churches and other venues have offered deals on their facilities since Monday and Reynoldson hopes to have a venue solidified within the next few days.