Metallica songs drifted through the speakers at the Switchyard Park pavilion as shoppers perused countless crates of music. Hosted by For The Record Vinyl, dozens of vendors from six states sold both new and pre-owned physical media at the Bloomington Music Expo on Saturday.
Jeremy Bonfiglio is the owner of For The Record Vinyl and an organizer of the expo. He oversees four record shows — events where vendors sell music-related items — in three states and is the music category manager for hobby supply company, BCW Supplies. Bonfiglio said he has seen a great revival of physical media and appreciates seeing younger people interested in it.
“I think a lot of people who listen to records in this format find it is like an active listening experience,” Bonfiglio said. “When you’re listening to a record, you’re more actively involved — you’re holding the jacket, reading the liner, looking at the photos and the inserts, and it becomes more of an experience.”
Before working at record shows, Bonfiglio covered music and the arts as a journalist for 26 years. Bonfiglio wrote for No Depression, a roots music magazine as well as other newspapers. He interviewed several high-profile musicians including Rick Springfield, Kid Rock and Eddie Money.
“Being able to talk to musicians about their craft, about songwriting and how they write and their favorite songs and influences, it really gave a lot of insight into that world,” he said. “Anytime I got to talk to somebody like that, it was always pretty special.”
Bonfiglio greeted attendees at the pavilion entrance and handed them a raffle ticket for a chance to win items from BCW Record Supplies and shopping certificates to be used at the expo. At the vendors booths around the pavilion, shoppers searched through crates of records and flipped through racks of band T-shirts; many shoppers were already dressed in music merch.
Bloomington resident Devon McCarty, wearing a Panic! at the Disco shirt, attended the expo alongside her husband, who ran a booth.
“Music is something my husband and I connect over a lot,” she said. “Lately, I’ve really been diving into quartets and strings, like orchestra music, while I’m reading. It’s really impacted me, especially these last few months.”
Shoppers took breaks from perusing the record booths to visit food trucks Planted and Pili’s Party Taco. The food trucks were just outside the pavilion.
At a booth near the entrance, Todd Cox from US Clean Vinyl sold new and used records from artists Duran Duran, Alice Cooper and dozens more.
Cox agreed with Bonfiglio that owning physical media makes listening to music more of an active experience rather than just something to put on in the background. He said physical media is a process: from cleaning the record to putting the stylus on, it requires attention.
“It beckons you to come back to it, you gotta flip it over to listen to the other side,” Cox said. “It’s an active process. It makes you part of it.”
Cox purchased his first record, American rock band Kiss’ self-titled debut album, when he was 4 and has loved music ever since.
“Even as a kid, I would have rather thrown a record on and listened to it as opposed to watching TV or going to a movie,” Cox said. “I don’t know how it affects everybody, but it’s just part of what I want to do, it’s every day. It’s just part of what I am.”
Cox said he grew up listening to the Beatles and the Chicago Transit Authority records with his mother, so music is a reconnection to his roots.
“It’s just home,” he said. “It’s comfort to me.”
The next Music Expo takes place Oct. 11, 2025, at Switchyard Park. More information is available at For The Record Vinyl.
