The Rock N’ Gem Show is returning to Red Deer next month.
The annual event, presented by Silver Cove, will be held inside Westerner Park’s Harvest Centre from Thursday, Oct. 11 to Sunday, Oct. 15.
“It’s one of the most diverse collections of gems and minerals you’ll find in the country,” said Chris Robak, co-owner of Silver Cove
“It’s a very unique opportunity to see a lot of different types of stones, crystals and minerals. What’s interesting about our show is it’s not the same every year. You’ll always see something new.”
The Rock N’ Gem Show features gems, minerals, fossils and crystals from all over the world. This year’s show will have a “big emphasis” on Indonesia and Morocco, Robak noted.
“The bulk of that material we have from Indonesia very rarely went to North America. We were able to go there and secure a large amount for Canada, which is pretty exciting because most stores don’t carry it or have a big selection of it,” he said.
“Then with the Morocco stuff, we have a lot of unusual mineral specimens from the Sahara Desert. There are some geological formations there that produce phenomenal specimens.”
Another thing the show will feature is jurassic ammonite from Indonesia. Silver Cove is the first company to bring these jurassic ammonites from Indonesia to Canada, Robak added.
“They’re 240-million-year-old ammonites. They’re three times older than the Alberta ones. It’s insane how old they are,” he said.
“We’ve also got a lot of riverstone products that are brand new – something nobody’s seen before in Canada. They’re large riverstones that have been carved into bowls, plates, jars. It’s very unique and we’ve never had it before.”
The show has been coming to Red Deer for about 10 years.
“When we started hosting the show in Red Deer we had our core customer base that would show up every year. Today we still have many of those people coming back year after year,” he said, adding the rock- and gem-collecting community has grown over the years.
“There was a woman who came to our show pushing a baby stroller who remembered coming to a rock show we held in Lacombe – this was going back 15 years ago. She said, ‘I remembered when I was in Grade 3, you were talking about rocks and minerals with me.’ I’ve been doing this for a while now.”
The show will be open from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. from Oct. 11-14 and from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Oct. 15. Robak said he is expecting to see between 3,000-4,000 people attend the five-day event.
For more information, visit www.silvercove.net.
sean.mcintosh@reddeeradvocate.com
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