VinylCon in Philly: Event Info, Afterparty Details

This weekend at the 23rd Street Armory, over 60 record dealers will descend upon Philadelphia with their collections in tow, all for you to peruse, buy and trade. VinylCon is a music collectors' paradise offering a chance for music enthusiasts to find rare items, or to discover something new.

The event is taking place on April 27th and 28th. There's going to be a ton of vinyl there - LPs, 45s, 7 inches, picture discs - but there will also be other music media on sale, such as cassette tapes, plus memorabilia and more. DJs will spin the soundtrack to your shopping throughout each afternoon, and there will be food trucks nearby to keep you satiated. There's also a bar, giveaways and other activities throughout the weekend.

VinylCon will be at the 23rd Street Armory at 22 S. 23rd St. in Philadelphia, PA 19103. A venue map is can be found on VinylCon's Instagram.

Doors open for general admission at noon on Saturday, April 27th and at 10am on Sunday, April 28th, with an option for early entry on the first day if you grab a ticket ahead of time. More info on that here. The event wraps up around 5pm on Saturday and 4pm on Sunday, but the party doesn't have to stop there...

The Trestle Inn at 339 N 11th Street will host the official VinylCon afterparty on Saturday night. The bar says that "select dealers from New York, Pittsburgh, Columbus and Philadelphia will be digging deep into their collections and spinning a mix of Latin, underground psych, prog, soul and more, with the Trestle Special LaDonna Winters delivering the go-go."

The afterparty will feature a special whiskey cocktail, too, appropriately named The Groove. It's free to attend, and VinylCon attendees will get a 20% discount at the bar. The DJ lineup is listed below, and later that night, the Trestle Inn will roll right into their weekly all-vinyl disco dance party, Saturnia.

Here's the DJ Lineup. Follow the Trestle Inn on Instagram for more info and future dance parties.

7:30PM - DJ @mostlyrecords of Mostly Records (Pittsburgh, PA) spinning Latin (Fuzz/Funk)
8:00PM - DJ Latchkey of Latchkey Records (Philadelphia, PA) spinning Underground Psych & Soul
8:30PM - DJ Progczar of Hot Fire Records (NYC) spinning Prog
9:00PM - DJ Lil Helleion of Shadowscene (Philadelphia, PA) spinning 70’s Rock and Psych
9:30PM - DJ Trueskillz of Soundclash Records (Columbus, OH) spinning Funk, Soul & Disco

Hear the Vinyl Cut with Pierre Robert every weekday just after 2pm, when he drops the needle on an LP or EP live on the air. Sometime's it's a classic, sometime's it's a deep cut, and sometime's it's brand new, virgin vinyl!

Make sure you check out MMR's Official Record Store Guide so you can add to your collection any time of year.

On Monday April 8th, 2024, much of North America was able to witness a rare solar eclipse. Here in Philadelphia, we were so excited to experience this celestial event that we dedicated the afternoon soundtrack to the event.

Pierre Robert began with his daily Vinyl Cut just after 2pm. He played "Moondance" by Van Morrison on the turntable in Studio R (yes, live vinyl on the radio!). We followed that up with a few hours' worth of moon, sun and space songs spilling over into Brent Porche's show.

Once Brent took the mic, Pierre and his producer Pancake made their way up to the roof of One Bala Plaza in Bala Cynwyd, where our broadcast studios are located just off of City Avenue. They were so ready - we all were - to watch as the moon covered the sun, with 90% totality expected from our vantage point. Unfortunately, at that exact moment, Mother Nature decided that we weren't ready to witness the eclipse, and sent cloud cover our way.

Here's what Pierre had to say about the experience, as posted on his Instagram:

"Pancake & I started preparing for the eclipse indoors in the studio. Then Brent Porche joined us and we took a photo underneath our famous picture of Mick Jagger (of the Rolling Stones) wearing the WMMR cap from 1981… Our program director Chuck Damico actually put a pair of safety glasses on Mick (the Stones have a big summer tour coming up & we’ve got to protect him!)… Then we went up to the roof of our studio home at One Bala, hoping for a magical experience but, for the most part, we just got clouds ⛅️ but that’s OK, it was fun! 🤩 And we played some great sun 🌞 and moon 🌖 songs all afternoon!"

Despite the obscured view, we still had a lot of fun with the music. Check Brent's page for the list of songs we played that day, and scroll through Pierre's photos below.