The Port Moody Rock and Gem Club will stage its annual takeover of Kyle Centre to showcase, craft with and sell igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic treasures from the earth this weekend (Oct. 27 and 28).
Photograph by: NOW , file
Calling all rock hounds and pebble puppies: Rocktoberfest is back in Port Moody and, no, it has nothing to do with The Flintstones.
The Port Moody Rock and Gem Club will stage its annual takeover of Kyle Centre to showcase, craft with and sell igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic treasures from the earth this weekend (Oct. 27 and 28).
Running for more than 10 years now, the show has ballooned in popularity.
"It's really quite surprising the number of people who are really interested in geology, earth sciences and go rock hunting and then take those boring-looking rocks and turn them into something quite exciting," said Rose Kapp, the show's chair.
"Last year we had over 800 in a two-day event. That's how big we get. Some years it's over 1,000."
No longer just private collections and sales for the keenest of the keen, the organizers now try to make sure the show has something for everyone.
"Children are nuts about dinosaurs, fossils and pretty stones," Kapp said.
"That's sometimes why the whole family ends up coming."
Among the more popular activities: the rock smash. Club members have fashioned "rocks" made of plaster with surprises hidden inside for kids, who smash the rocks open with hammers, just like real geologists do, to find the goodies.
"They just love doing that sort of thing," Kapp said. "They can get destructive and we like them to."
The show also features sales, crystals popular with holistic healers, fossil collections, a silent auction and demonstrations by jewelry makers and artisans - including local carver Tom Reid, who will be showing off his soapstone techniques - as well as food vendors and prizes.
"Mostly the ladies like the jewelry and the gentlemen get really interested in things like the fossils," Kapp said.
Attendees shouldn't be shy about bringing in rocks they've found and would like to learn more about.
"If you've got a mystery rock, we've got three rooms full of experts who can probably tell you what kind of rock it is you found on the beach," Kapp said.
The show is now likely the second-largest in B.C. after the B.C. Lapidary Society's annual gem show held each spring.
Entry is by donation at Kyle Centre, at 125 Kyle St., from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday, Oct. 27 and 28.
The Port Moody Rock and Gem Club will stage its annual takeover of Kyle Centre to showcase, craft with and sell igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic treasures from the earth this weekend (Oct. 27 and 28).
Photograph by: NOW , file
