Vendors from across Victoria gathered in Sidney on Saturday, Oct. 19 to sell records, swap stories and talk music at the South Island Vinyl and Record Show.
The one-day event at the Mary Winspear Centre attracted hundreds of people despite heavy rains that lasted all weekend long.
“It worked out well for us because people who came to vote next door (at a polling station inside Mary Winspear) also stopped by to check out the show,” event organizer Joel Weinstein remarked excitedly, while welcoming and collecting $5 entrance fees from guests.
The South Island Vinyl and Record Show is a bi-annual event that happens in March and October that features all manner of classic and contemporary vinyl for sale and other prized collectibles.
“This is my fourth time joining the show as a vendor,” says Rosanne Jordan. “I love it. It's the best showing on the island - lots of vendors, lots of variety, great prices.”
On Saturday, a motley crew of vendors set up shop at the Bodine Family Hall, showcasing a variety of LP’s, 45s, CDs, concert DVDs, cassettes, band t-shirts, music books and memorabilia.
“You can walk in here and buy an album for a dollar or you can spend $100 on an album that you’ve been searching for.”
The event is kind of riding the wave of the return of vinyl with more people seeing records as an investment and wanting to grow their collections now more than ever.
But nostalgia remains the show’s most potent attraction.
“There's something about the sound when you hear the slight hiss and crackle of vinyl as opposed to CDs. There's just a different sound to it,” Jordan added.
And what could be more nostalgic than digging through crates and boxes of records and flipping through handwritten labels to find musical rarities.
“I find that everything vinyl related comes into somebody's life for a reason,” shares Ian Kershaw, who together with his partner Lindsay Smith, has been selling records at the show for the last seven years.
“I've looked for certain original copies of hard-to-find albums. I've gotten very lucky for the most part. But you must know when to let things go sometimes and to pass it on so that the music just goes around to the new generation.”
Kershaw has a personal collection of about 2,000 records and Smith owns 400.
Fellow vendor, Brian Linds knows a thing or two about the art of letting go.
From his original collection of 10,000 records, he’s now down to just 3,000.
"Just before COVID hit, I started selling my records because we thought we were going to move and we ended up not moving, renovating our house instead,” Linds recalls.
“I had a two-day sale in my carport and I had so much fun selling my records and seeing the joy that I brought to people.”
That’s how he ended up joining the vinyl community. “My wife says she's never seen me so happy because of the social aspect - talking to people about music and listening to music together,” he said.
Vendors from all over the Island and Lower Mainland will be bringing music of various genres when South Island Vinyl and Record Show returns on March 2, 2025 at Mary Winspear Centre.
