Alexis Lean grew up surrounded by music. She learnt to pick a few beginner tunes on her dad's guitar, and she likes the piano at home, but it really belongs to her younger sister, Zoe.
"I played it today," she said, "I like the guitar better. I think I will have to learn when I'm bigger."
Alexis' dad, Jared, was in a local band on the Central Coast a few years ago. In Hyde's Shadow played at the Metro Theatre in Sydney, but when their guitarist left, they called it a day. The family now live in Newcastle, and Alexis is keen to start music lessons this year.
She was playing on her dad's guitar earlier on Saturday morning, she explained clutching her new bright pink acoustic close to her chest at Musos Corner. Zoe played along on her little ukulele.
"Now I've got this from here," Alexis said before catching her parents' eye and adding carefully, "And I can take it home now?"
"Lately, she has been getting into Avril Lavigne," Lucie Lindsay-Brown said, "I think we're going to get her into lessons this year. It was very contingent on whether they had the pink guitar."
"Pink is my favourite colour," Alexis said definitively.
The renowned music shop on the corner of National Park Street in Newcastle West was buzzing on Saturday as the annual May the Fourth sale - when the shop slashes prices by as much as 90 per cent on rare and unique musical instruments for one day only - returned in a tradition that dates back more than a decade.
The line in the early morning hours stretched back as far as the Hunter Street intersection, but the store's manager thought a recent spate of rainy weather had turned off all but the most faithful from camping out for too long.
Local bandmates Sam Collins and Phoenix Munroe had camped for almost a week outside the store, braving the elements and the rowdy construction work across the street just to be the first in line.
It's a tradition that brings the local music scene together once a year and the legacy of the late sale founder Andrew Lindsay, who created the event over a decade ago.
It had been a year of fire, and then a year of floods and storms which saw the Pasha Bulker run aground on Nobbys in 2007. Then, in 2008, Andrew Lindsay came home from London to get married with an idea for a Star Wars-inspired sale event at his family's store.
Andrew Lindsay was being groomed to take over the ownership of Musos Corner, but he died in December 2022 from pancreatic cancer aged 51.
At the weekend, staff on the floor serving the buzzing crowd of customers milling in and out of the shop searching for a bargain reflected on Mr Lindsay's legacy.
"It's chaos in a good way," the manager, Greg, who asked to go by first name only, said. "We dug up a lot of treasures for everyone to find and hid them accordingly around the shop. We like to do that a little bit because it can make it a bit more fair for people who may get in a little later. And also, those who spend the time looking around can find some treasure.
"It's a lot of fun for everyone involved, and it's a good thing to do."
At the back of the shop, which moved into the former Spotlight building in 2022, young Matthew Archer, a Year 7 student at Hunter School of Performing Arts, was jamming away on a Yamaha Pacifica electric guitar.
"He hasn't been able to put that one down," his dad, Mark, said quietly, "I think I'm going to struggle to get out of here without it."
"You are, Dad," Matthew said without missing a beat.
The young muso started on drums but taught himself a few songs on the guitar by watching YouTube videos. He likes the Foo Fighters, he said.
"Then, obviously, the first week back last week, I started playing electric guitar at school," he said. "I really liked the sound - it sounds really good. And now I'm interested in guitar."
When asked if he had considered a career in music, he said, "I haven't really thought that far ahead, but I have been playing with a few mates from school, and we might form a band together."
For the past few nights, the staff had been listening to the informal band of campers who often bring along instruments to jam the hours away while they wait for the doors to open on sale day.
"We could hear them playing," Greg said with a smile, "Someone brought a drum kit down too. As we put stuff up all night, we heard all the songs."
