Ask Mr. Answer Person: "Why couldn't we find 1,000 'room nights' for an outdoor concert crew?"

(Our exclusive news story about Decorah missing out on an outdoor concert that would have attracted 35,000 people to town prompted a question from one of our readers: "Why was Luther College unwilling or unable to accomodate "1000 hotel nights?"  I assume the concert was to be held in the summer when students were not occupying the dorms.  Could you elaborate on this?)

Mr. Answer Person says, "You're correct that the proposed dates for the concert festival were during the summer.  The biggest reason something couldn't have been worked out was the fast turn around time required to make a decision.  Other factors resulting in Luther not being able to be used to house the crews were the concert promoters' requirements, the conflicts with existing summer events scheduled at Luther and the fact that Luther's mission is educational.  In short, Luther just wasn't able to provide rooms or land for a concert of this large size.