![\"Rare](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Record-Riots-2.jpg\")
Rare vinyl will be among the collection of 30,000 records, CDs and cassettes on sale at Record Riots in January. (Courtesy of Record Riots_)<\/p>\nOn Jan. 3, the Leesport Farmers Market banquet hall will be lined with the vinyl equivalent of gold.<\/p>\n
Over 30,000 records, many of them rare, are slated for display at \u201cRecord Riots,\u201d a traveling event featuring the collections of local record stores, independent dealers and more.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe event that they have is pretty impressive, to say the least,\u201d said Charlie Eshbach, who owns Homer & Forkie\u2019s record store in Leesport. \u201cFor anyone who has any inkling into vinyl, this is the place to be.\u201d<\/p>\n
Eshbach said the event is like putting 30 or 40 record stores in one place.<\/p>\n
The event will feature multiple independent record dealers offering over 35 tables of records, CDs and cassettes.<\/p>\n
In addition to Homer & Forkie\u2019s, three other local stores will also be putting their collections on display: Everlong Records, of Hamburg; Haul House Records of West Reading; and What a Crock Records, Schuylkill County.<\/p>\n
Owner Steve Gritzen said Record Riots first came about in 2008 in Brooklyn, at a time when record shows were few and far between.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust the popularity of vinyl (motivated us to start the event),\u201d Gritzen said. \u201cGiving people the opportunity to come to one spot and see multiple dealers. We have people coming (to Leesport) from six hours away to sell records.\u201d<\/p>\n
After the initial event saw over 900 people packed into a club in Brooklyn, Gritzen decided to take the event elsewhere.<\/p>\n
Today, the traveling show moves throughout dozens of locations annually across Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Maryland, Virginia and Ohio.<\/p>\n
A few events, like the Leesport show, have become semi-annual fixtures, while other show locations vary.<\/p>\n
Gritzen said the January Leesport event usually sees a decent turnout.<\/p>\n
Rare vinyl will be among the collection of 30,000 records, CDs and cassettes on sale at Record Riots in January. (Courtesy of Record Riots_)<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s right after Christmas and New Years,\u201d Gritzen said. \u201cWe usually see about 400 people.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said the beauty of Record Riots is that you never know what dealers will bring to the table.<\/p>\n
\u201cThink of it like a flea market,\u201d Gritzen said. \u201cYou don\u2019t know what you\u2019re going to find. It\u2019s always interesting.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said rare finds like Beatles albums and first pressings of Jimi Hendrix and Pink Floyd aren\u2019t out of place at shows.<\/p>\n
Gritzen and Eshbach said there is a vintage quality to vinyl recordings that cannot be matched by modern technology.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith (modern recording tools) it became a lot easier to get the sounds you want,\u201d Eshbach said. \u201cThe ease of making recordings has traded off quality and just the integrity of the musician\u2026The musician doesn\u2019t have to earn the recording anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gritzen said there is an old school fun and nostalgia that listening to a record elicits.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe cover, the label, the crackling of the record once in a while,\u201d Grizten said. \u201cPeople love it. It\u2019s a fashion. And the older stuff, vinyl sounds better.\u201d<\/p>\n
The event will take place on Sat., Jan 3 at the Leesport Farmer\u2019s Market banquet hall.<\/p>\n
Regular admission will be from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and costs $5. Early bird admission is at 9 a.m. and costs $15.<\/p>\n
For more information, contact recordriots@gmail.com or text or call Gritzen at 609-468-0885.<\/p>\n
![\"Owners](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Record-Riots-3.jpg\")
A Record Riots event is coming to the Leesport Banquet Hall in January. (Courtesy of Record Riots)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On Jan. 3, the Leesport Farmers Market banquet hall will be lined with the vinyl equivalent of gold.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":73626,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[349,60,16424,182,28,128,130,129,10918],"class_list":["post-73625","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-reading","tag-berks-county","tag-business","tag-leesport","tag-local-news","tag-pennsylvania","tag-reading-city","tag-reading-city-headlines","tag-reading-city-news","tag-top-stories-tth"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73625","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=73625"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73625\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/73626"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73625"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73625"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73625"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}