Music lovers gathered for the Orange County Records Show in Buena Park to check out vinyl records on Feb. 23 from 7:15 a.m. to 3 p.m.
The OC County Records Show is one of the biggest in Southern California with over 90 vendors selling vinyl records in the UFCW (United Food and Commercial Workers) Union Hall building.
Ryan Blavout, one of the organizers for the show, said, “It’s something I’ve been a part of for 25 years as a vendor and customer, so I just wanted to keep it going. We’ve been doing more signings more and more vendors”
Blavout runs the OC Record Show with his wife, Cynthia Blavout.
The OC Record Show started in 1986, but Ryan Blavout took it over from the original organizer in 2022.
“I specifically like jazz records so we saw that there was an ad for the OC Show so we decided to come,” said Zoei Ma, who brought her cousin Julianne Chen along.
Ma was one of the customers perusing the show where vendors such as Manuel Rosales’ Vinyl Rose Records were selling their products.
“I started collecting records back in 1992 at the Salvation Army about my first CD player. They happened to have a record player and U2’s Joshua Tree. I started my passion and love for U2 as well,” Rosales said.
Rosales is also a teacher at South El Monte High School, he brings in his record player to play vinyl for his students.
Romain Del Bello from Paris brought his daughters Chiara Del Bello and Sienna Del Bello to the event.
“I’m happy because we share something they [his daughters]…listen to so that’s a family thing – plus it works on vinyl,” Romain said.
Besides vinyl, there were CDs, DVDs, vintage toys and T-shirts being sold.
Liliana Mallow, who came from Mexico, got some RV, rock, Spanish rock, blues and classical music vinyl. Mallow spent $800 at Tomas Navarro’s Discos Lo Nuestro booth.
Navarro mostly sells Latin American vinyls from Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, El Salvador, Venezuela and Mexico.
“I try to come out every month when it happens. I’m a big collector of a lot of different stuff, and I am a huge fan of Japanese city pop vinyl,” Buena Park resident Steph Yi said.
Tsugu Itagaki, who runs the We Share Records booth, has been coming to the show for over 10 years.
Itagaki said they believe people still buy physical copies of music because there are a lot of kids in their 20s who study digital music.
They added that It’s good for collectors who have liked records for decades and new people in their 20s who are digging for records. “…It’s a good generation right now,” Itagaki said.
“I just love records and am really into vinyl,” Adriana McCauley said, “I love the sound of the music and the cover art.”
The next OC Record Show will be at the UFCW Union Hall again on March 30, according to Ryan Blavout.
