Big crowds at Oshawa vinyl shops for annual Record Store Day

The line-ups were long and the smiles were wide as vinyl aficionados took to the streets of Oshawa Saturday morning for the annual Record Store Day.

The one-day event – billed as the largest single-day music event in the world – started in the U.S. in 2007 and has grown to include thousands of stores around the globe, with special releases, in-store gigs and even street parties to celebrate brick ‘n mortar music stores and the magic of vinyl.

For Andre Lessard, who only opened his Another Spin vinyl store on Bond Street East in the downtown store last year, this is his first time understanding and appreciating how popular the event has become.

“We did amazing,” Lessard said, noting he opened his store at noon to find people lined up down the street. “For our first Record Store Day I was very surprised. I couldn’t have asked for anything more.”

Special releases from all genres of music were snapped up quickly, Lessard said, including records from Stevie Nicks and Offspring (“that was gone in a minute”), as well as Childish Gambino, Madonna, Mariah Carey, and Rick Astley.

Oddly, none of the participating record stores were delivered any Taylor Swift special releases, even though Swift was this year’s Record Store Day ambassador.

Line-ups were also long at the Now and Then store inside the Oshawa Centre Mall, as well as Kops Records on Simcoe Street South in SOJO. Kops was not an official participant but had plenty of Record Store Day releases available.