Vinyl record pop-up now spinning at Millcreek Common

MILLCREEK, Utah (ABC4) — Spinning for the next two weeks, a new pop-up at Millcreek Common is bringing music enthusiasts together.

The pop-up is called “Vinyl Revival,” with plenty of selection for both new and seasoned collectors — including vinyl records, cassettes, T-shirts, music-inspired jewelry and other memorabilia.

The pop-up is open daily from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. and runs through April 6, excluding Easter Sunday. It’s inside the Public Market on the first floor of the Millcreek City Hall.

“This idea has evolved over the last several months as we started planning for this. We love to do these pop-up shops because this is a community space,” said Lacy Gill, the Public Market manager. “We want people to be able to come in and share what they’re passionate about and we thought a ‘Vinyl Revival’ would be a great way to welcome in the community to share their passion of records and music.”

One of the booths, VIP Vinyl, is run by Hamlet Soria. Last year, before Millcreek finished their new city hall, Soria asked if he could host a vinyl show. Since the space wasn’t available then, he brought them to the Millcreek Arts Festival.

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“It was a hit,” Soria said. “We see that it was a growing up market, because people started getting more interest in having something to hold in their hands than download on their phone.”

Now, with the opening of the new Millcreek City Hall, the Public Market, and Millcreek Common in November 2023, the city fulfilled Soria’s vision, which developed into “Vinyl Revival” for even more collectors to get involved.

Soria is an avid music fan and has been building his personal collection for years.

“I’m from Peru. Where I come from, I didn’t have money to buy vinyl records,” he said. “The first time when I come here, it probably was 2003, 2004, I started finding records in yard sales for $0.50, $0.25 and now I can afford it. It’s how I started my collection … Pink Floyd’s my band, and I found records from them. It’s how I started with 10 records, then 100 records, now I have 5-6,000 records.”

Soria remarked the pop-up’s already been quite busy.

“We see already, even today have a lot of sales. People, I think, understand the record has a value itself.”

Sellers said they’re bringing a range of music and genres, ensuring there’s something for everyone, showing ABC4.com records from Bryan Adams, The Beatles, The Doors, Kansas, Rolling Stones and more.

Although there’s plenty in store each day, vendors say you won’t want to miss Saturdays — where they’ll be bringing even more vinyl records to choose from, and there will be live DJs.

“We’ll have some other records that we don’t have here, a little bit harder to find records, some jazz records and all sorts of genres that are hard to find. We’re just going to have a lot of fun on those Saturdays,” said Eric Yuhas, co-creator of Kiss My Vinyls. “We pretty much have it, from the fifties all the way up to present day, especially on the Saturdays.”

Yuhas continued, saying, “We’ll have more of the current artists on Saturdays. You’re obviously getting your Taylor Swift, Coldplay, just all different genres. So pretty much from A to Z, we’re going to have something that is for everybody — so from ABBA to ZZ Top.”

Yuhas and long-time friend Chris Bowen created Kiss My Vinyls, with the name being inspired by their mutual love of the band KISS. At the pop-up, you’ll find them at a booth under that name and another called By Vinyl.

“Me and Eric, we’ve been best friends since, like, third grade,” Bowen said. “More or less, we’ve always done little things, like started out with baseball cards and comic books, and now we moved on to record.”

The business started two years ago. Yuhas said he and Bowen have both been growing their own collections for a lot longer than that, and wanted to share their passion with the community.

“We remember having vinyls when we were kids and just wanted to share our love for music,” said Yuhas. “…Records sound a lot better, you get them on the right turntable, speakers, amplifier, the whole setup, you’re just going to hear stuff you wouldn’t hear on digital.”

Records are having a comeback — The Recording Industry Association of America shows that sales began going up in the mid-2000s following a dip in the 80s. Forbes reported that that popularity continued in 2023 as record sales increased 14% from the prior year, with Americans buying 49.61 million vinyl albums.

This vinyl resurgence is something Bowen and Yuhas commented they’ve noticed, and what the pop-up is a testament of.

“Over the last 10 years, it’s gone up exponentially. Ten years ago, nobody collected vinyl anymore. You could go in and people would give you their vinyl,” Bowen said. “Now, it’s crazy how it is. I think it’s great that people are getting more involved in it and it makes it more personal again.”

Another great part aspect of the vinyl resurgence, Yuhas said, is seeing records be shared across generations.

“We’ve seen kids in their early 20s and even probably late teens — all the way up to my parents’ age — buying vinyls. I think it’s just that music that draws us together,” he said. “I love the fact that it’s come back and it’s very popular … I have three kids that are adults, and they all have vinyl as well. To share that is something that I never thought I would be able to do with them.”

An example of that was Denney Fuller and his 5-year-old daughter, who spent their day at the pop-up and looked for records together.

“We just come and flip through the records, and she’s learning how to do it better now and she can pick out some of the artists she knows, so it’s pretty fun,” Fuller said.

He said that when they come and look for records, they’re not sure what they’ll find, but the best part is searching and coming across gems you may not expect.

“It’s fun to hold the art, and you can look at it while you’re listening to the records and look at the linear notes and pull out the posters for some of them, or frame it, if you really like the album art … it’s fun to feel the physical form,” Fuller said.

Bowen said one aspect he enjoys with selling is helping people find their favorite artists.

“For that one person, finding that one record … that’s what I like about it. It’s cool seeing people find what they like,” said Bowen.

All these sellers commented that what they look forward to with the pop-up is sharing their love of music with others.

“It’s bringing new people to the vinyl family, bringing new generations to see how it feels to play a record,” Soria said.

Gill said the Public Market is a spot meant to bring people together, and they’ve held several events to do just that, including a holiday market and an art market. The next event is an International Festival beginning in April, which will run until the end of June.

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