The Rock N' Gem Show returns to Red Deer this week.
The event, presented by Silver Cove, will fill Westerner Park's Harvest Centre from Wednesday, Feb. 19 to Sunday, Feb. 23. The show showcases top vendors from across Canada and features a range of crystals, minerals, jewellery, beads, fossils and home decor.
"This show, in particular, will encompass products from an old rock shop down in Florida that we have acquired," explained Chris Robak, co-owner of Silver Cove.
"There's approximately six tons of products from the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s. A gentleman operated this rock shop for several years — it was the largest one in Florida. When he passed away, his wife sat with the collection for many years after. When she sold their house, the family that bought it inherited all of the rocks. I worked out a deal with them, acquired the collection, flew down to Florida, palletized it and shipped it home."
This collection features plenty of material from the United States, as well as from Mexico, Madagascar, other parts of Africa and elsewhere.
"In addition to that collection, another big focus we have at the Rock N' Gem Show is Canadian material," Robak noted.
"A lot of people are interested in promoting Canadian (products) right now, so we wanted to put an emphasis on that as well."
One new addition to the Rock N' Gem Show is a UV Light Night.
"We're going to open up our show at night, turn the main lights off and we'll let people look around using UV lights," Robak explained.
"Blacklight minerals have become really popular over the last couple years, so we decided to roll with it. We want to come up with new and unique ideas and that one popped up. At one show in Saskatchewan, we did a UV night just for fun with our staff. You'd be surprised just how much UV material there is out there on our sales floor. ... With some minerals, when you hit them with a blacklight, they'll hold a charge and glow for several seconds. It's really cool."
New products will be found on the floor every single day during the Rock N' Gem Show, Robak added.
"If you're there on the Wednesday, then you're definitely going to want to come back on the Sunday because it'll be an entirely different event on the Sunday. It's pretty crazy how much new stuff we'll have this year," he said.
For more information on the Rock N' Gem Show, including hours and ticket prices, visit www.cangems.ca.
