Hudson Eakin has high fund-raising goals for a concert he organized to benefit victims of Hurricane Katrina, but they will be hampered by restrictions the town has put on his ability to publicize the event.

In an effort to raise money for the American Red Cross this Cape Elizabeth High School sophomore, with help from several other students and teachers, has organized a concert to be held at Fort Williams Park on Sunday.

But, according to Town Manager Michael McGovern, a “standing rule” exists for any event held at Fort Williams: Unless the event has gone to the Town Council and Fort Williams Advisory Commission for a formal vote, the town does “not allow folks to solicit the general public to attend,” he said.

That leaves Eakin and the other organizers in a tough spot. Eakin said he would like to raise $20,000, but being unable to publicize the event in newspapers or radio stations “will have a huge effect” on the results. If it were up to Eakin, he would have started calling radio stations and newspapers weeks ago and made the event a two-day festival with more bands and longer sets.

He isn’t giving up. “I guess we have to keep it grassroots,” he said. He isn’t disappointed either: “I’m happy with this,” he said. “I think it will be great.”

The name on the posters plastered around Cape Elizabeth High School and being passed along by word of mouth, instant messaging programs and cell phone is KatStock – but Eakin said he likes another name: “Rock for Relief.”

The need to help in the hurricane relief effort is personal for Eakin. He grew up in Alexandria, La., four hours north of New Orleans, and only moved to Cape Elizabeth a year and a half ago. He lived his whole life there and has “a hundred friends” from the area. He was only able to get in touch with five or six after the hurricane hit, one of them his best friend.

“I was increasingly worried daily,” Eakin said. “Down south when you have a best friend you would die and go to hell for that person.” Some friends in New Orleans and Baton Rouge he still hasn’t been able to contact.

Eakin decided to plan the benefit concert the day after Hurricane Katrina hit his native state.

He was sitting at the counter at Becky’s Diner in Portland watching the news and wishing he could do something to help. Then he thought about his band practice scheduled for that day, and then it hit him – “I’m a musician, I can help out!”

Eakin immediately turned to the woman sitting next to him, a total stranger, and asked if she knew anything about getting bands together for a concert. Surprisingly she did, and that was the start. He began meeting with teachers, the principal, and he even set up a meeting with McGovern and Police Chief Neil Williams to discuss holding the benefit concert at Fort Williams Park.

The town and police department supported the efforts of Eakin and the other students involved, but it was a “short-range plan on their part,” Williams said.

McGovern hopes the event is successful – “a couple thousand people would be fine” – but the town won’t allow the organizers to publicize the event in advance, inviting an unknown number of people to Fort Williams Park without providing for “people’s security and physical comfort, i.e. toilets.”

“We’re just not prepared to handle thousands, and thousands, and thousands of people,” McGovern said.

Even when the Portland Symphony Orchestra plays at the park they are limited to selling 4,000 or 5,000 tickets, based on the number of available parking spots.

McGovern said the town is being “quite a bit more lenient” than usual with the concert. The town is donating services that organizers are usually charged for, including extra park rangers, extra toilets and the presence of the fire department.

And it streamlined the approval process for holding events in the park, notifying the Town Council at a workshop, without any official vote, and the Fort Williams Advisory Commission via e-mail.

Because of the short notice and having already been stretched thin by another large event being held in town the same day, Williams said the police department wouldn’t have the manpower to handle the crowd of thousands that could potentially arrive if there was an “all-out publicity stunt.”

For comparison, Williams uses the Beach to Beacon 10-kilometer road race that attracts 15,000 people and is held in the town every August. “We begin planning for that event in February,” he said.

If the event did get major publicity in the region and attracted large numbers of young people, “it would be more than what the town has committed to,” Williams said.

The organizers said they were told the benefit concert could be “shut down” if it received too much publicity. But Williams denies that. “At this point we’re not planning on shutting anything down,” he said.

Williams said the police department supports the organizers and the cause, “but we don’t want this thing to get out of hand.”

If “Rock for Relief” doesn’t end up raising the amount Eakin is hoping, he will keep raising funds for the relief effort. “I don’t think the government is doing nearly enough, so I’m going to do what I can,” he said.

“If you want something, you got to go for it,” he said was a lesson he learned growing up in the South.

He would at least like to make $2,000, which is the amount Eakin said the government is giving to families affected by the hurricane. “I’m thinking of how many families we can take care of with this,” he said.

Seven bands from Maine, New York and Massachusetts are signed to perform at the park from noon to 6 p.m. The stage is a flatbed truck being donated by L.P. Murray & Sons and the microphones by The Drum Shop in Portland. Bands include Eakin’s band Arsenic & Lace, Audiophile, Skamasutra, Paid in Full, The Project, The Free Refills and Subterranean.

Matt Oakes, an organizer of the event and the drummer for The Free Refills, a Cape high school ska band, said the music will range between funk, ska, rock and punk, “whatever the ear can take.”

“It’s going to be a multi-genre, all ages chem-free show,” Eakin said. “It’s going to be great.”