September 26, 2010 – San Francisco – Folsom Street between 7th and 12th was packed with leather men and women, kinksters, fetishists, and tourists for the 27th annual Folsom Street Fair. The event celebrates alternative sexuality, BDSM, and leather culture. Unlike most other San Francisco Leather Week events, Folsom Street Fair is always free to attend and open to all people of any age.
Leather harnesses and boots were standard garb. Many brave leather folk broke out their corsets, latex catsuits, and leather pants despite the intense heat. Others sported leashes, fishnets, and temporary decorative piercings. Nude men, both hard and flaccid, wandered the streets. This reporter even witnessed a man sounding his cock on the corner of 10th and Folsom just after she entered the fairgrounds.
The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence collected donations and prepared visitors for adult themes at every entrance. Vendors lined the streets selling beer, food, clothing, accessories and hand crafted whips. Political campaigns, non-profits, and porn studios set up tents and stages. Kinky establishments on Folsom Street including Wicked Grounds, Chaps II, and Powerhouse opened early for one of their busiest days of the year.
The boys performing in SteamWorks’ booth drew quite a crowd, as usual. Kink.com’s Maitresse Madeline and Van Darkholme dominated boys and girls for hours on stage. DJs spun for dancers at either end of the fair at 7th and 12th streets. Naked Sword, Mr. S Leather, and TitanMen put on shows and held demos at every intersection in between.
Many people wandered the streets taking photos of leather folk in their “natural habitat.” Folsom Street Fair, and Up Your Alley Fair (usually known in the community as "Dore Alley Fair") to a lesser extent, are two of the only events in San Francisco where gawking and photos ops are welcomed by San Francisco’s kinky communities.
Unlike events at bars and dungeons, Folsom Street Fair serves to educate anyone curious enough to wander though. Tourists and rubberneckers are welcome, even encouraged, to snap photos, ask questions, and absorb their surroundings. Unlike most other San Francisco Leather Week Events, Folsom Street Fair serves kinky leather folks not only by entertaining them or serving to fostering a stronger community, but by helping to raise awareness of the leather community at the national level.
Many community members spent the day volunteering for their favorite vendor—sweating in the heat. These kinky folks could have had more fun at an air-conditioned private party. But they spent the day on the street helping spread the word about alt sex and raise money for this year’s Folsom Street Fair beneficiaries.
Folsom Street Events donated $333,000 to non-profit organizations last year, according to a press release issued March 16, 2010. This year’s sixteen lucky beneficiaries included the Breast Cancer Emergency Fund, Project Open Hand, Dimensions Clinic, Mission Neighborhood Health Center and the National AIDS Memorial Grove.
The fair opened at 11am and closed at 6pm, but the festivities and fundraising continued on though the night. Real Bad XXII, a gay dance party, started at 7pm and ran though the night. The official Folsom Street Fair closing party, Devants, sponsored by Kink.com, started right as the fair closed and ended at 2am— for those who didn't get enough partying during Magnitude, which ran Saturday night to 4am Sunday morning!
Hope you had a happy Leather Week!
Print
