The Central Berkshire Record Show: A Day For Vinyl Hunters
Berkshire County's largest-ever record show proves vinyl records are still alive and flourishing.
Raise your hand if you still own a turntable. My hand is up. If your hand is up, too, you and I are the audience for the Central Berkshire Record Show on May 1 at the Stationery Factory in Dalton, Massachusetts. Billed as Berkshire County's largest-ever record show, the event is organized and hosted by Andrew Garcia, owner of BerkshirecatRecords. The show will feature 30 vendors from all over New England selling records, CDs and music paraphernalia in all genres. Four DJs have been lined up to spin records throughout the day; Biggins Diggins food truck will be on site, as well as beer and a full bar.
Garcia, a music teacher for the Central Berkshire Regional School District, opened BerkshireCat Records in the Stationery Factory quietly during the pandemic. Collecting records was a hobby of his, but he knew there was a vibrant vinyl community in the Berkshires and Pioneer Valley and saw there was a real interest in buying and selling it. Traffic at his shop has borne that out. He figured his independent old-school record shop would be a continuation of his hobby, but now, he says, he calls it his retirement plan. Garcia sells quality used and new records, CDs and tapes, and amasses record collection from estates and private collections. A review of the shop’s website reveals a sampling of his inventory includes albums of the Grateful Dead and the Rolling Stones, Madonna and Amy Winehouse, David Bowie and a rare German import of “The Beatles 1967-1970.” Garcia also offers a limited inventory of stereo equipment.
Garcia is hosting the show as a BerkshireCat Productions event and figures around 300 people will show up to flip through the albums, 45s and CDs spread out among more than 25 tables. He estimates that prices will range somewhere between $5 and $500, depending upon condition, the pressing, and the rarity of the title.
There’s definitely a nostalgia for the whole vinyl experience going on, Garcia says. Those of us old enough to remember the ritual — appreciating the cover artwork, reading the liner notes, the rhythm of turning the record over — know these actions are burned deep in our DNA and connect us to our younger selves. There’s also that sound quality that some (including myself) consider superior — or at least different, in a good way — to that of the compact disk.
“People come in waxing nostalgic about records,” Garcia says. “They buy a pile of records and say, ‘Now I have to get a turntable.’” As a music teacher, and prior to COVID, he would occasionally play records for his students. “They’d stare at the records spinning and be fascinated. Some would figure out that the song was where the ‘line’ was on the record. It’s a nice respite from the ‘bits and bytes’ of almost everything else in their lives.”
In fact, he says, high school students visit the shop regularly. “It’s awesome when kids are all excited to tell me they got a turntable over the holidays.”
Long live vinyl.
The Central Berkshire Record Show
Sunday, May 1
The Stationery Factory
63 Flansburg Ave. Dalton, MA
VIP entry at 8 a.m., $10. General Admission, 10 a.m. - 4 p.m., $3
