Approximately 300,000 people showed up for the 36th annual Folsom Street Fair, in the South of Market neighborhood in San Francisco, on the latest Sunday of the event. The event’s organizers have proclaimed Folsom is the world’s largest leather fest with Easter Berlin almost tied. Just to let that sink in they mentioned that three hundred thousand people showed up for a leather party…

While the event takes place about a month before Halloween these are not costume parties. Folsom is about leather, fetish, and any other form of erotic self-expression and acts of personal liberation.

Folsom Street Fair began in the 1980’s, as a community protest against the evils of real estate developers who marked the South of Market neighborhood for “redevelopment.” I think we call it gentrification these days which comes with the closing of many gay venues over the years. At the time, South of Market (SoMa) was absolutely not in need of being “redeveloped,” as it had a thriving culture filled with bars and clubs that were popular in the leather scene.

Many gay and trans neighborhoods in San Francisco (and around the world) have been demolished by wrecking balls, because they were deemed socially undesirable, but SoMa has fought that process somewhat successfully, thanks to the unity of the local residents. Folsom Street Fair organizers turned the event into a fundraising powerhouse, and have raised millions of dollars for charitable organizations devoted to serving the local community.

Folsom is Sexual Identity

It reflects your sexual identity back at you. You learn what turns you on and what doesn’t. What you once thought was kinky, and what you now think is normal. What you might try, what you’re glad you tried, and what you’d never even consider. Who you’re scared to admit you want to be, what you’re scared to admit you want, and what you’re absolutely sure you don’t.

Be Bad for Good Causes

Folsom Street Fair (also referred to as just “Folsom”) is the world’s largest outdoor leather/ fetish event and attracts half a million people every year from all over the world. The fair is produced by the Folsom Street Events non-profit organization raising money for an annual roster of beneficiaries. If you’re familiar with July’s Up Your Alley street fair (also produced by the Folsom org), Folsom is generally a more ‘mainstream’ and straighter affair than Dore alley weekend. Straight kinksters and fetishists have been important partners in the fight for LGBT equality and visibility and Folsom is for them, too.

Event & Party Guide

Guys come to San Francisco and enjoy the switch to smaller, more intimate events for the most part. Several hundred guys packed into Club Six with the low basement ceilings sweating intensily from the humidity is a huge change from most circuit events. In San Francisco, you are more likely to see the same guys several times a night or throughout the weekend.

There are some events though that compare to other world-wide circuit parties but some of these are really hard to get tickets to.

Thursday Night

For those that arrive early into town San Francisco’s Horse Market may be the place to start things out. Horse Market is a truly degenerate evening for all, inspired by Europe’s infamous Fickstutenmarkt parties. Folsom Thursday also brings back the The Balcony at Underground SF, an afterhours club that was in operation from 1977 to 1983, that opened at 6am as the city’s sex clubs were winding down. It returns just for this weekend.

Badland’s, The Cafe, and Beaux clubs are also places to see while in the city especially if you cannot get tickets to some of the other parties then it never hurts to see the local club scene.

Friday

Folsom Block Party at Mr. S Leather is held on Fridays and Saturdays.

This year the Brüt party was held at the Great Northern, produced by Hedonic Productions and Brian Kent Productions, with DJs Dan Darlington, Peter Napoli, and Manny Ward, benefiting Positive Resource Center. This was more of a deep house, tribal and circuit music event. Tickets were sold out pretty fast for this.

Other parties include the Maze at Atlas, The Growlr party, Prime at Club Six, presented by TrophyDad with DJs Neon and Serge P. Very popular with #EDM Fans was the Tinlicker at Audio.

Saturday FLSM Events

Here is a summary of the events you will find on Saturday at FLSM:

• Electroluxx at Public Works, produced by Electroluxx. The locals seem to love this artsy event.
• New Breed at Club Six, produced by PoundPuppy SF and Polyglamorous with DJs Justin Cudmore, D. Tiffany, Perfect Lovers, Kodemul, Victor Rodriguez, and more.
• Pervert at Mezzanine (Our Pick), produced by Cecil Russel, Matinee, and XOXO Productions, with DJs Dan Slater, Nina Flowers, and Isaac Escalante. We are told by the XOXO productions people that next year will be even bigger venue because the tickets sold out really fast for this year.
• Masteurdome at Regency Ballroom, produced by Brian Kent Productions and Audrey Joseph, with DJs Chus + Ceballos and Ralphi Rosario. This was a huge venue with theater seating upstairs.

After-Hours before the Fair

Aftershock at City Nights, produced by Frisco Disco, with DJ Abel. This is the Saturday night/Sunday morning afterhours before the fair. Now in its 24th year, it’s got that perfect dark, horny, forbidden, unforgiven ambiance. This event was sold out a month before FLSM.

Folsom Street Fair

Folsom Street Fair is on Folsom Street between 8th and 13th Streets. It’s a recommended $10 donation to get in. Enter on the side streets especially Harrison, for quicker entry and to get into the crowd faster. It’s over 300,000 people packed into 13 city blocks for 7 hours. It’s insane.

There are several stages with some of the city’s best DJs plus a constant cavalcade of indie music rock acts. Hundreds of booths of fetish and leather vendors. You’ll see just about anything there.

What do you actually do there? Get tied to an electrical pole and get flogged, buy some leather stuff, watch BDSM demonstrations, have a chicken skewer, dance your ass off, get drunk/stoned/high/fucked/fucked up, or whatever you’ve got a whim for.

You will see people dressed in their favorite fetish attire whether is is leather or biker or athletic or rubber or corsets or neoprene or even Edwardian formal wear.

The REAL BAD Party (Sunday)

Sunday night on Folsom weekend is the favorite event of the year for many partygoers for leather weekend.

Thousands of the friendliest, hottest men you’ve ever met (and some women) pack into local dance mega-temple 1015 Folsom for a night of dancing and revelry. The event is produced by local non-profit Grass Roots Gay Rights and all the money from the general admission tickets goes directly to lgbtq related beneficiaries.

Real Bad tickets are a complete bitch to get according to ones that actually got them. Most tickets are only available through a host system of a couple hundred hosts who are each given a handful of host codes to share with friends and their network (each host can also buy 1 or 2 VIP tickets which they can resell if they like). That approach helps preserve the vibe that nearly the entire crowd is there because of someone they know in the organization’s “Circle of Friends.”

On Saturday the 14th, a batch of a couple hundred tickets sold out on EventBrite in under a minute. These tickets are about as hard to get as a camping spot at EDC in Las Vegas.

The Real Bad event page on Facebook and the ticket swap group for those looking for tickets (say what the weekend means to you, how you volunteer and contribute to organizations in your own community or to the fair itself, and why you want to go to the party) and their website RealBad.org.

Yes, seriously people were posting selfies trying to be as sexy as possible to get into the event and basically begging for tickets. Maybe they should move the bloody party to a bigger event ha!

If I couldn’t get into Real Bad, I’d probably sleep in or hang out or hookup or until the Nocturnal afterhours. Which is what we did.

Deviants Adult Arcade at Mezzanine official closing party and alternative to Real Bad

Deviants is the official closing party of Folsom Street Fair at Mezzanine, so just a short walk from the fair. The night’s proceedings are hosted by the original King of Sleaze Mario Diaz (of the BFD, Full Frontal Disco, and Dirty Sanchez parties).

House of Black Leather, produced by Honey Soundsystem

Many of the locals we asked absolutely love Honey Soundsystem and the events that they produce throughout the year. The event goes from 3pm to 3am on Sunday. Also note from the event page on Facebook: “Zero tolerance for GHB. Security will be checking for it.” Maybe they have had some incidents but we actually went to this party and they had really strange rules to get drinks at this venue. It was good music though and they had a few boxes to dance on and we enjoyed watching people dance! The bartender downstairs seemed intoxicated when we arrived late at night and the one upstairs said they only served shots which was odd.

Up Your Alley/Dore Weekend

It was a cold and windy weekend in San Francisco on this final end to September. I am sure there are many people who forgot to bring their coats as we did. We were really not much for walking around in the morning hours wearing a harness because of the colder weather. It would work out good if we had more leather gear but the fantasy we had of everyone being naked and barely clothed was a bit off. We plan on checking out the Up Your Alley/Dore Weekend Party as it will be gayer and warmer. This can have a downside as the sweaty clubs that are smaller will be even more humid than before.