Ten local and regional vendors, offering new and used vinyl, will set up crates for collectors and citizen audiophiles to thumb through in the brewery’s auxiliary taproom.
“You see people kind of flip through the records, have a beer, flip through the records again, maybe get another record… then have another beer,” said Jayson Hartings, COO of Yellow Springs Brewery. “It’s kind of a loop of ‘maybe I do want to go back.’ It’s a really unique thing to have in our space.”
The brewery has once again teamed up with Blind Rage Records (Dayton) and fellow craft brewers Alematic Artisan Ales (Huber Heights) to host the third Record Fair in Yellow Springs. The event is a way to promote and bring together Ohio-area record stores and for people to gather and discover new stores they may not have previously patronized.
But there is also a communal element to the Record Fair: attendees are encouraged to bring pieces of their own collections to swap with their fellow vinyl-heads, as well as support the vendors.
“[At one Record Fair] I left with like two big boxes of records people brought to trade,” said Gwen Downing-Groth, owner of Blind Rage. “It added even more of a community aspect to it, instead of being like, you know, mass capitalism, selling records. That’s kind of the goal: to create more of a community between the stores and the people that shop.”
This year’s vendors include Blind Rage Records, Resignation Records (Troy), Spiral Groove Records (Milford), Catacomb Records (Kettering), Three Feathers Records (Fairfield), Omega Music (Dayton), Skeleton Dust Records (Dayton), Ron’s Records (New Lebanon), New 2 U Vinyl & Vintage (Miamisburg) and Strange Records (Morrow).
Food, drinks and music will be flowing while attendees flip through the crates.
There will be 12 beers on tap, including the brewery’s normal selection and seasonal beers, as well as two or three specialty cocktails designed specifically for the Record Fair. Hartings said the brewery’s popular Oktoberfest beer may also be available ahead of schedule.
Sushi Hikari will have a food truck parked outside, offering fresh hand-crafted sushi (traditional Japanese style and fully-cooked American style) and some other authentic Asian foods.
Alematic, which often offers music-inspired beers, brewed a collaboration beer with Yellow Springs Brewery for the first Record Fair called Footsteps in the Dark, a Russian Imperial Stout named after the Isley Brothers’ song.
This year’s Alematic-Yellow Springs collaboration beer is called Strawberry Fuzz Forever Sour Ale with Peach and Strawberry — the fruity flavors of which are likely obvious. Sounds like something that’ll pucker up and rosy the cheeks.
“The first one was great, it was really fun,” Hartings said of the inaugural Record Fair a few years back. “Getting to work with another brewery for the collaboration was a big part of the first one. So I think bringing that energy back into it, where there’s a new beer that’s got some energy around it, is something cool for people to come and enjoy the space.”
How to go
What: The Yellow Springs Brewery Record Fair/Swap
When: Noon-7 p.m. Aug. 11
Where: Yellow Springs Brewery Barrel Room, 1475 Xenia Ave., Yellow Springs
Cost: Free to attend
About the Author