​Vinyl revisited: The Fargo Record Fair returns

Dig out your turntables and dust off your record collection: the Fargo Record Fair is returning for its fifth consecutive year.

Since 2010 the Fargo Record Fair has been the F-M area’s great annual vinyl sale and get-together. At the fair’s helm is Fargo resident Dean Sime, who has organized the event every year. Initially inspired by a trip to New York’s colossal WFMU Record Fair, Sime set out to supply the F-M area with its own version – albeit one a little smaller in scope.

Located in downtown Fargo at the Howard Johnson Inn, the event will feature 22 vendors, each with a table to present their own collection. Those showcasing will include personal collectors from the F-M area and Minnesota, as well as a few local businesses, including Orange Records and Phat Kat Antiques. Arctic Audio will be supplying the sound system for the event.

Each vendor will bring around 1,000 records, and Sime estimates that visitors can expect to browse through around 20,000 records in total ranging from dirt-cheap to expensive reissues. Prepare to find more than just vinyl records, however; included in the eclectic and varied collections will be CDs, cassettes and music memorabilia. Minneapolis-based graphic artist Lonny Unitus (the man behind this year’s logo – a vinyl-fueled rat rod) will feature a selection of his art, including past concert posters.

The time for record fairs is ripe. Now, according to Sime, we may have entered the “Third Phase of Vinyl.”

And it appears as though he is right. For years, vinyl has been surviving on the sidelines while new technology repeatedly superseded it in popularity. First, the cassette tape crept up. Then compact discs arrived and things looked bleak. But during it all vinyl survived: especially as a preferred format of club disc jockeys and as a niche market for collectors. And after the initial sheen of CDs wore off a little in the early ‘90s, people apparently began to miss vinyl, and it enjoyed what may have been its “second phase.”

According to Nielsen SoundScan, which tracks the sales of music products, 2013 saw a 32 percent increase in sales of vinyl records from 2012. That’s just a continuation of the steady climb in vinyl sales every year since 2005. Although overall physical album sales have plummeted since the early 2000s, vinyl as a format has continued to grow and make up a larger percentage of that market each year. This year’s Record Store Day (April 20) was strong for independent stores around the country, with some reporting their best vinyl sales ever.

However, Sime says the fair is mainly about keeping the sense of community strong. And for the former record store employee, one who has seen the rise and fall – and rise and fall and rise – of vinyl, organizing the event is a labor of love.

“It’s never been about just selling records. It’s about the camaraderie,” says Sime. “Many of us are showing up for the sake of getting together and talking. Lots of people are getting back into vinyl; lots of people are trying it out for the first time. I’ve never stopped picking up vinyl records, and in the end I’m just looking for stuff that I like to listen to.”

Sime’s collection at the fair will probably reach upwards of 750 LPs, with some 7’’ records and CDs too. He notes that the selection will feature a little bit of everything – from punk to jazz to Springsteen and Elvis Costello. Included will be a lot of oddball stuff though. In past years, people have found his table to be “eccentric.”

When describing the kind of music he prefers, Sime remarks that he likes “funny little guys with guitars – but it doesn’t have to be guys, and it doesn’t have to be guitars.” For example, 1970s Memphis power-pop group Big Star is an absolute staple in Sime’s “core collection.” Don’t expect him to be getting rid of that at the fair.

“It’s like the music equivalent of driving stick shift with a car,” says Sime about listening to vinyl records. “It’s about paying attention and being actively involved with the record – flipping the record, putting down the needle, sitting down and listening – that is important to me.”

IF YOU GO

Fargo Record Fair

Howard Johnson Inn, 301 3rd Ave N, Fargo

Sat, Oct. 25, 10 a.m. – 5 p.m.

$2 admission

www.facebook.com/FargoRecordFair