WMSE Collector and Gear Show
Photos by Benjamin Wick for ThirdCoast Digest
Crate diggers, music fans, and musicians made their way to the Todd Wehr Auditorium on Sunday for the first ever WMSE Collector And Gear Show. Previously the station organized a similar event, the WMSE Rummage Sale, but this year they wanted to try and do something a little different.
“I felt like the musicians and collectors were not as well served by either the big record shows or the blow-out rummage,” said WMSE’s Chris Ward, the event’s chief organizer. “I really wanted to create something for the musicians and the real fans of the station.”
Unlike the Rock N Roll Rummage from previous years, this event focused on the higher-end of things, with vendors digging deep into their collections for the rare and hard-to-find items. Among the crates of rare records and musical memorabilia, the show also featured a considerable amount of musical equipment. Show-goers were just as curious to check out the guitars, amps, and other gear brought by the Greenfield Music Go Round store.
“I think a lot of the vendors were really excited because we let them know that this was different from the blow out rummage and that we wanted their a-game, their higher quality stuff” said Ward. “That’s the crowd we were going for, and to some extent I think we really got.”
The event’s vendors included Atomic Records’ Rich Menning, electronics wizard Jon Blick as well as members of the WMSE staff themselves, doing everything from DJing (WMSE’s Tom Wanderer played music all afternoon) to helping sell off some of the station’s equipment. Although as Ward said, they weren’t there just to work.
“One of the things I thought was really funny was watching some of the volunteers who there to help with the event” said Ward. “There were so many of them that came up to me and said things like “Hey can you watch for a second? I need to go buy something.””
At the end of the afternoon, both attendees and organizers were happy with the turnout. “We got around 250 at the door, which is even better than what we’ve had in past years,” said Ward.
For those of you who were unable to attend, never fear. When asked if they had plans to do it next year, Ward said “Absolutely, yes.” Looks like I’ve already got plans for 2013.
