The Brewing Projekt, located near downtown Eau Claire, hosted a community-wide vinyl record market on Saturday, Oct. 19. 

The event, which was organized by Abraxas Wax owner Seth Larson, featured roughly 10 music vendors selling new and vintage vinyl, as well as CDs, tapes and other music merchandise.

Sellers at the event ranged from record store owners to music enthusiasts selling from their personal collections. Larson said he and the other vendors hosted a similar event this past June. The group came together through mutual connections in the vinyl community.

“It was all just kind of word of mouth, friends of friends,” Larson said. “I’ve done one in Marshfield before and met a lot of these people there. I was kind of surprised that Eau Claire has never done one, so I brought it here.”

According to Larson, the vendors came from all over Minnesota and Wisconsin, including areas like the Twin Cities, Milwaukee and Black River Falls. He said the market has been well received by the Eau Claire community.

“It’s just nice to get all these different records into one room,” Larson said. “It’s been really cool to just see everyone’s reactions. Everyone’s been very supportive, and that’s all I can ask for.”

Jenessa Rush said she was selling tapes and records at the market with her boyfriend, who drew his inventory from his personal collection.

“I think everybody’s having a good time. It’s cool to see what people are collecting,” Rush said. 

Vendor Tim Andrews owns a store called Remix in Forest Lake, Minnesota. He said he has been pleasantly surprised by the renewed enthusiasm for vinyl records in recent years. 

Andrews first started selling vinyl at a record store he owned in the late ‘90s and got back into vending in 2012. He opened Remix seven years ago.

“My first store was at the end of the record era when CDs were coming in early streaming,” Andrews said. “I eventually saw that it was becoming popular again, so I started it back up by doing conventions.”

Andrews said when he first started selling at vinyl conventions, he still had misgivings about the stability of the vinyl industry.

“In 2012, I thought all of this was going to be a fad,” Andrews said. “That’s why it took me five years to open a record store. But through things like Covid, construction in front of our building, all of that, we’ve managed to stay open.”

Andrews said over the years, he’s observed that the vinyl industry has evolved into a “collector market.”

“Something I’ve seen in the last seven years is people turning down a lot of good, playable records because they weren’t mint,” Andrews said. 

Vendor Steven Kudrick said he has been selling records for about six months. He first became involved with the event through Facebook. 

Kudrick said he sells records from his personal collection, which he has compiled over a number of years.

“I kind of have a limit to how much I collect, so every time I buy a record, I pick a record out,” Kudrick said. “It keeps me under control.”

Both Andrews and Kudrick said they’ve enjoyed their time selling at The Brewing Projekt.

“For anyone who’s into music, this is a pretty good little setup. Especially on a day like today,” Kudrick said. “Beautiful day, sit by the river, have a beer, buy some records.”

Wojahn can be reached at [email protected].