With vinyl sales up 18 percent in 2012, Record Store Day has been growing every year and Saturday’s events look to continue the trend.
“It’s the best holiday in the world,” said Chris Pyle, owner of Donkey Coffee and Espresso. “It’s fun to find new stuff … and hit the other guy across the face who’s trying to get the same record. I’m a pacifist until it comes to Record Store Day.”
Record Store Day, set for April 20, was conceived in 2007 by independent record storeowners as a way to celebrate and spread the word about the culture surrounding more than 700 independently owned record stores in the U.S., according to recordstoreday.com.
This year, the Nelsonville Music Festival has set up a ticket promotion for the day with five participating record stores across Ohio: Haffa’s Records in Athens, Lost Weekend Records in Columbus, Shake It Records in Cincinnati, Blind Bob’s in Dayton and My Mind’s Eye in Cleveland.
The partnership is designed to help local record stores, as well as promote the music festival by giving away weekend passes to the festival through a drawing of names entered through purchases on the day.
“People want something more special when they buy their music,” said Brian Koscho, marketing director for the festival. “They want to have something cool to hold in their hands. Record Store Day keeps bringing that idea into the forefront.”
Koscho added that those at Stuart’s Opera House take pride in selling vinyls at the festival from performing artists and they want to support local stores when they can.
While Haffa’s Records is doing a simple raffle, other participating stores have trivia competitions for the tickets and other promotional events.
Koscho said the festival is always looking for new ways to draw people in and that the ultimate goal is to remind people that the festival is only six weeks away.
“I’m really excited for the Nelsonville lineup; it might be one of the best in years,” Pyle said. “Wilco is one of my favorite bands so it’ll be really cool to see them.”
Andrew Lampela, owner of Haffa’s, said he has been good friends with those at Stuart’s Opera House for years and this partnership “just made sense.”
He also said he’s a big fan of the festival and this year looks to have another strong lineup.
“It’s always fun. You find bands you’ve never heard and cool bands you maybe never paid attention to,” Lampela said. “It’s just so laid back; you always have a good time.”
wh092010@ohiou.edu
