Lindsay Maizland

Published on American Word Magazine’s website. Fall 2016.

Every year, vinyl-loving AU students and DJs head to Penn Social in Chinatown for an afternoon of flipping through record bins. The biannual DC Record Fair welcomes record dealers from throughout the East Coast, listeners searching for newer pop music and vintage record collectors looking for lost gems. But the most important part is the thousands of records thrown into wooden and plastic crates begging to be listened to.

This year’s fair took place on January 29. While some students attended with friends, others joined WVAU, AU’s online student radio station, in their tradition of exploring the Fair together. We challenged a few students and DJs to stick to a budget of only $20 for the day. For reference, I saw a FKA Twigs record priced at $20 and a record by The Police for $2.