On Saturday, Sept. 27, WESU put on its biannual record fair in Beckham Hall. Vendors from around the Northeast came to sell records, CDs, books, cameras, and record players.
Founded in 1939, WESU 88.1 FM is a radio station run by both Wesleyan students and the Middletown community. Ben Michael, the station’s general manager, has been organizing the event for over 20 years. In a conversation with The Argus, Michael explained the station’s importance in bringing the Wesleyan and Middletown communities together.
“WESU is a student group, but it’s also a community organization,” he said.
Michael explained that the record fair started when physical record stores started dying out. In fact, many of the vendors at the record fair don’t have brick-and-mortar stores.
“The interest in vinyl has grown exponentially since our first record fair,” he said. “Some people have physical stores, but a lot of what you’ll find [are] people who used to have record stores, and now this is what they do.”
He added that the event is a great way to get young people excited about CDs and records.
“I grew up with physical media, so I have a love for it, but if you grew up with YouTube and streaming platforms, this is a new thing to be able to pick something up and actually weigh it, read the liner notes, and appreciate the artwork,” he said. “It’s a lot better of an experience than MP3 can offer.”
Besides making physical media more accessible, the record fair also sparks in-person interactions and helps build community. Longtime vendor Chaim O’Brien-Blumenthal pointed out that the people playing music at the event all have shows on WESU.
“The people who are playing the music here today, they get to meet their listeners, they get to shake their hand[s] and come up to them, and I love that part of community,” he said. “I think not being able to do it during the pandemic for a couple of years made us want to do it again even more.”
The event is wildly popular, full of both longtime record collectors as well as students who have never interacted with physical media before. Several students came to the fair looking for specific records, but the majority said they came to get recommendations from the vendors and find new music.
Michael hopes the event will continue for years to come. He’s hopeful that young people will stay interested in older forms of media.
“People are looking to hold onto culture and experience it more than in their headphones,” he said.
Alexa Gillespie can be reached at agillespie@wesleyan.edu.
Henry Kaplan can be reached at hrkaplan@wesleyan.edu.
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