Independent record store owners and staff from all over the Midwest are coming to Cleveland and bringing their own crates of rare vinyls, new music and more to share with local music fans.
Wax and Tracks Fest, now in its second year, is Saturday, Sept. 19, at Vinyl Groove Records, 5100 Pearl Road in Old Brooklyn.
David and Cecilia Wolfe, the owners of Vinyl Groove Records, founded the festival along with independent music marketer Jessie Kelkenberg of Great Life’s Work.
“It is a love letter to Cleveland,” Cecilia Wolfe said. “[We’re] giving back to our community and also keeping the music alive, because Cleveland is the home of rock and roll, and people forget that we are a music city.”
‘You don’t open up a record store to make money. … It is passion’
“Community” is the spirit behind Wax and Tracks Fest, according to its founders – building community with local music fans and supporting a community of independent record stores.
“Music is an inspiration for everyone,” said Wolfe. “We can all sit there and remember a song and remember what we were feeling right at that time. [We’re] giving that back, creating that for new people who haven’t experienced it.”
“Then, the love of our independent record store community,” she added, “we truly support one another. The funny joke in the independent record store community is you don’t open up a record store to make money. You don’t. It is passion.
“We’re not there to compete with one another because when one fails, we all fail.”
Where is Vinyl Groove Records?
Vinyl Groove Records is located in the plaza at Pearl and Brookpark Roads that was once home to other renowned local record stores like Coconuts and Peaches. Wolfe said current customers regularly mention the memories they have of shopping there.
“I can’t tell you the countless times people [say], ‘You know, back in my day, this used to be Peaches, and I remember…’, reminiscing like that,” said Wolfe. ‘We’re proud to be able to deliver this, right? But they’re proud to be experiencing it and knowing that it’s in their neighborhood or their city. So it’s giving it back to them, and that gives, I mean, that just makes us want to go harder.”
Wax and Tracks Fest is free to attend.
Participating record stores include Out of the Past Records, a family-owned record store in Chicago operating since 1966, State Street Records from Salem, Ohio, specializing in metal, hardcore and punk vinyls, and The Government Center, a record shop and social gathering space in Pittsburgh.
The record store festival also features a live music line-up that includes a performance of Funkadelic’s album “Maggot Brain” in full by members of the popular Cleveland band Apostle Jones and a set by longtime Cleveland DJ Mike Filly.
For more information, visit their website.
