The biannual show (there's also an installment in April) is perfect for the record collector with everything — but also designed to be welcoming for the "vinyl curious," explains founder Kobi Waldfogel, who started the event in 2021 with partners Reuben Saul and Patrick Selvage. "There really is something for everyone," he says, and that includes "the whole spectrum of collectors — the person that's just getting into it all the way to the hard-core collector." It's grown from a one-day event hoping for 500 attendees to a two-day festival that draws around 3,000 visitors.
Catching the eye of those novice aficionados is actually a big part of the Rocky Mountain Record Show's strategy, and something that sets it apart from other record fairs, Waldfogel says. "We do a ton of digital marketing on social media, and really try to tap into that younger generation that just got a turntable for Christmas and a Taylor Swift record, and they're trying to build out some more of their collection."
Rocky Mountain Record Show founders (L-R) Patrick Selvage, Reuben Saul and Kobi Waldfogel.
Courtesy of Rocky Mountain Record Show
"We've been attracting vendors from all over the country that come to our show," he says. "In the circuit of vinyl record fairs, we've gotten a really good reputation [for] putting on a good show [and] taking care of our vendors, but also bringing in a good crowd and having a good vibe. We've been getting dealers from Texas, California...a guy just hit me up thirty minutes ago from St. Louis that wants to come and do the show."
The Rocky Mountain Record Show "started as a passion project, something that myself and my two partners felt didn't exist here in Denver," says Waldfogel. From the beginning, it was intended to provide what they saw as a welcome contrast to the more traditional version of a record show, which he characterizes as "a more dusty type event, really just buying and selling vinyl [with] no additional programming. There was an event that we used to sell at where there wasn't even music playing." As collectors and dealers themselves, the three founders envisioned something a lot more lively: a celebration of music (that actually had music) along with food, booze and other activities. "The idea was to have a community event, in the city, and try to do it in a hip location that's easy for everyone to get to," says Waldfogel. This year is packed with DJs and artists. DJs use all vinyl, of course, and that lineup includes Matt Sage, Pete Swanson and Neon Brown as well as New Mexico-based Jeremy and Hadley from SloLow Records. Waldfogel and Selvage will also be spinning. "We're not well-known DJs but have fun doing a set here and there," Waldfogel admits. Artists included in the poster sale, which is mostly concert-related, include Joe T, Lindsay Kuhn, Danny Evans and Sam Pierson.
This will be the trio's fourth time operating out of the Sports Castle's funky, classic Art Deco edifice at 1000 Broadway, which existed for years pre-pandemic as the Sports Authority and, for decades before that, as Gart Sports. The show fills the cavernous building's three levels with vendors and vinyl, along with food trucks street-side and most other activities arranged on the first floor. This year's trucks will be Hot Box and Flippin' Birdz on Saturday, followed by Que Desmadre and Farm to Truck on Sunday.
Vinyl vendors, Waldfogel says, "run the gamut. On one side of the spectrum, it's like a collector who just decided that they had too many records and wants to sell some so they can buy more. That's kind of where I was in the ecosystem for a while." On the other side are "the brick-and-mortar shops. Quite a few of the shops in Denver will have a booth at our show, which is pretty cool. Wax Trax has a booth...Recollect...a couple other record stores locally. And then some of our sellers are large online sellers as well, that will come with a good inventory."
With more than 75 vendors, the selection ensures that almost every taste will be satisfied, but "I think that on the whole, our show does skew younger," Waldfogel says. "I have a lot of vendors that tell me they just get asked for Frank Ocean and Taylor Swift all day. ... We have some vendors that sell new releases that do really well."
Waldfogel and his partners are relatively young to be vinyl-heads. "I've been collecting vinyl [seriously] for about ten years, but have been a music lover my whole life," Waldfogel says. He has a vivid memory of discovering the vintage medium's unique magic.
"I kind of had a moment where I had heard an album a million times — and it was one of my favorite albums — and I stumbled upon it on vinyl and realized I hadn't ever seen the cover," he says. That album, released in 1975, before he was even born, was Bob Dylan's seminal Blood on the Tracks. The cover features an iconic picture of Dylan, taken by photographer Pat Till with a telephoto lens and edited until it appears almost unreal, as if it were a painting rather than a photo.
"I grew up with mp3s and iPods — Napster generation, if you will — so it was kind of an eye-opening moment," Waldfogel recalls. That discovery led "slowly down the rabbit hole, to the point where I started getting more into the collecting side of things and then selling also, and eventually had to start my own record show."
Digging through crates at the Rocky Mountain Record Show.
Courtesy of the Rocky Mountain Record Show.
"It sounds trite, but we couldn't do the show without the sponsors," he says. "A lot of them have been working with us for a while, and have been instrumental in being able to do the show that we want. It kind of is what separates us from a lot of the other record shows, as we're able to have additional budget for more activations at the show, and do more marketing and use better venues," he explains. "All that kind of stuff all comes from the sponsors."
From industry-related businesses (VPI turntables, Discogs, BMV record sleeves) to big outfits like Topo Chico, "we generally try to work with companies that we like to use ourselves, and kind of add value to the show," he says. "The right [companies] seem to want to have their brand associated with what we do and be part of a community of passionate people." Some, such as the drink company Monster Energy, even get into the artistic spirit of the event: Waldfogel says Monster has "been a great supporter of the show, and they actually do an activation where they do 'spin art' on record. They have scratched-up records that you can [paint] your own art piece on."
The event's success has turned it into a national, even global, destination for wax fans. Waldfogel says there's a contingent of Japanese record store owners that have begun to make the trip to the Mile High City to stock their shops at the show. It's recently become a Denver export, as well.
"I'm currently expanding the concept, and I launched a record show in Philadelphia in April with the formula that I've learned here in Denver," Waldfogel says. "I'm doing another one this fall and [have] plans to expand into more cities in the next year, taking something that started here in Denver and rolling it out nationally."
But despite the fact that we'll be sharing him with hungry fans of physical media elsewhere, his heart remains in the Rockies.
"We're really proud of the show," he concludes. "We've grown it from something real small that we were doing just for fun. ... [We] always wanted to be something that would draw people to Denver, and I feel like we're finally getting to that point."
Rocky Mountain Record Show, noon to 5 p.m. Saturday, October 12, and 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday, October 13, Denver Sports Castle, 1000 North Broadway. Tickets are available at rockymountainrecordshow.com.
