Halifax Record Fair does a booming trade amid vinyl renaissance

Dozens of Haligonians took those old records off the shelf and put them up for sale at the latest Halifax Record Fair, as the vinyl resurgence continues.

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The vendors didwell on Saturday, too, with people intending to pick up a record or two, often leaving with a bigger stack.

"There's an ATM on site for a reason," he said of the event at the Halifax Forum's Maritime Hall.

Record sales up 30 per cent last year

Record stores are thriving and expanding in Canada andmany big acts are putting their albums out on vinyl again.

Canadian record sales rose 30 per cent to 517,400 units sold last year, according to Nielsen Music data. LP sales in the U.S. hit a new record at 12 million units, marking the 10th straight year of vinyl sales growth.Forbesreported earlier this year thatU.S. sales were the best they've been since 1988.

Beal said vinyl records have a tangibleappeal in the digital age.

"It's hard to show off your record collection when it's all on a digital computer or whatever," he said. "So there's that esthetic to it. A lot of people just like actually sitting down and opening up the record and enjoying it and kind of getting immersed in the whole thing. I think that's really what's drawn everybody back to it."

He said the records change as new vendors come and go some are one-timers, for others it's their life.

Beatles, Rolling Stones still popular

Joel Gray made about $500 in sales on Saturday and said he still has about 800 records.

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He said albums are more substantial, more collectible and sound better. People on Saturday were looking for the usual suspects, he said: Beatles, Rolling Stones, obscure metal.

Gray said he's sad to see some of his collection, go, but not all of it.