Kick Off the Year with the G&LW Lakeland Show

The G&LW (Gem & Lapidary Wholesalers) Lake land Show will kick off the New Year, 2025, with the first of their sixteen annual shows.

Both Florida and North Carolina were hit by the October 2024 hurricanes Helene and Milton, and the October & January G&LW Asheville shows were canceled due to storm damage. We hope that both areas have recovered to hold later shows. Our hearts and prayers are with the residents that have lost their family and property.

All G&LW Shows have free admission and are wholesale-only shows – open only to trade buyers and not to the general public. A valid business license, tax certificate, or sales and use tax permit in a gem or jewelry-related business is required for admission. The show always recommends that you bring printed copies of these certificates. It’s also advised you keep a print copy handy with your checkbook and a digital copy on your phone. And don’t forget your business cards. 

G&LW Show Lakeland, Florida, January 2025 Show

The G&LW Show in Lakeland, Florida, will be the first show to kick off the New Year. It will be held on January 5-7, 2025, at the Lakeland Center – RP Funding Center at 701 West Lime Street. 

Lakeland is the most-populous city in Polk County, established in 1861. Lakeland is located east of Tampa and west of Orlando, in the middle of the state within the Central Florida Highlands, among several lakes. Lakeland is known by its moniker “Swan City” due to a large number of swans, descendants of a pair of royal swans given to Lakeland by Queen Elizabeth II in 1957, which replaced the earlier swan population that had disappeared.

An early 1920s city boom was followed by a bust, and it waited for its next boom in the mid-1930s. In 1938, architect Frank Lloyd Wright was invited to design a great education temple for the Florida Southern College. Wright’s campus, the “Florida Southern Architectural District,” is now designated as a National Historic Landmark by the National Park Service and attracts 30,000 visitors each year. Large industries in the Lakeland area include citrus, cattle, and phosphate mining, along with tourism and insurance today. 

After you shop at the G&LW Lakeland Show for precious beads and pearls, fine jewelry, gold and silver, minerals, rough lapidary materials and cut gemstones, take a city stroll to look at the swans and architecture!

The G&LW Asheville, North Carolina, January 2025 Show Canceled

The G&LW Asheville Winter Show at the Western North Carolina (WNC) Agricultural Center in Asheville, North Carolina, has been canceled for 2025. The WNC Agricultural Center is a premiere event and convention center serving western North Carolina, eastern Tennessee, and upstate South Carolina. It’s currently serving as an emergency shelter for the Hurricane Helene evacuees. Again, our hearts and prayers are with all of them.

Asheville is in the Blue Ridge Mountains at the confluence of the French Broad and Swannanoa Rivers, the site first recorded as Guaxule by Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto during his 1540 expedition. Asheville is home to several art deco buildings and the famous historic Biltmore Estate, built as a chateau-style mansion for George Washington Vanderbilt II between 1889 and 1895. Asheville is also famous for its performing and visual arts centers, including the Asheville Museum of Art and the Earth Science Museum. 

For information about all sixteen G&LW shows (venue addresses, contact info, dates, hours, admission, etc.), a list of vendors, photos, and Google-map directions to each show, go to Xpo Press’s Gem Show Search page and type “G&LW” in the Show Name Contains search box, then click Search.