The Folsom Street Fair has grown into the largest annual BDSM, leather, and fetish event in the world, and the third largest annual outdoor event in California.
But it didn’t start off that way.
The Miracle Mile
From the beginning, the gay bars South of Market had a bit of a rougher edge than the gay bars in North Beach, the City’s first gayborhood. The Sailor Boy Tavern opened on Howard Street in 1936. It was followed in 1962 by the Tool Box at 4th and Harrison, the City’s first gay leather bar. The tone for which sorts of gays the neighborhood would attract had been set.
When FeBe’s opened on Folsom Street in 1966, it established what would become known as the Miracle Mile: a stretch of leather and bear bars along Folsom Street. Other bars that would join the Miracle Mile included Ramrod, the Stud, the Gas Station, the Covered Wagon, the Leatherneck, Dirty Sally’s, the Plunge, and the Eagle, and others.
Attempts to gentrify SOMA
In the 1970s, City politicos wanted to “revitalize” the South of Market area, perceiving it to a largely industrial, uninhabited warehouse district. Gays in the leather community joined with other neighborhood advocates to resist gentrification, fearing the City’s efforts would be an excuse to harass gay leather bars.
Then AIDS struck in the early 1980s and the gay community’s attention was diverted and weakened. Bathhouses were closed and bars were regulated more heavily. For a time, it appeared that developers had City Hall’s ear and would prevail in plans to gentrify and commercially develop the neighborhood.
In response, Kathleen Connell and Michael Valerio collaborated to create the first South of Market street fair to show that the neighborhood was already vital and didn’t need revitalizing. The Folsom Street Fair, then called “Megahood,”debuted in 1984.
But because the fair was centered on the Miracle Mile, it attracted a lot of leathermen who helped shaped the tenor of the fair and aid in its growth.
The success of the first Folsom Street Fair led to the creation of the Up Your Alley Fair in 2005, a much more gay and BDSM-oriented event than the all-fetish Folsom Street Fair. The first Up Your Alley Fair was held at Ringold Alley before moving to Dore Alley in 2007. Today, Up Your Alley is part of Folsom Street Events.
Fetish and Philanthropy
Many of the leather bars along the Miracle Mile are gone, but a handful remain: the Powerhouse, the Hole in the Wall, and the Eagle, among others.
Efforts to gentrify SOMA proceeded and, if anything, have escalated in recent years. But in the meantime, the Folsom Street Fair has grown to become the third largest annual outdoor event in California after the Rose Bowl Parade and the San Francisco Lesbian/Gay Freedom Day Parade and Celebration, attracting more than 400,000 visitors a year. Between sponsors, voluntary gate donations, and beverage sales, the event raised enough to cover expenses and have enough left over to donate around $250,000 a year to charitable causes.
In addition to vendors selling fetish-related wares, the fair has a number of other regular features. Steamworks creates a giant Twister board for their “Naked Twister” (more accurately, “bare as you dare” Twister; no one is turned away for an abundance of clothing, though a complete absence of clothing is certainly welcome). Kink.com provides a variety of BDSM demos with trained male and female models. Other groups have spanking and flogging booths. Wrestling mats are sometimes available to indulge wrestling enthusiasts. Puppy play pens have become a big feature in recent years.
Additional Resources
Related Content
- SOMA’s Gay History
- Posts with SOMA category and tags
Sources
Bannon, Race, “Fair Extraordinaire: Folsom Street Fair’s fascinating history,” Bay Area Reporter, September 18, 2014.
Connell, Kathleen & Paul Gabriel, “The Power of Broken Hearts: The Origin and Evolution of the FolsomStreet Fair,” Folsom Street Events.
Lipsky, Dr. William, Gay and Lesbian San Francisco, Arcadia Publishing, 2006, 0-7385-3138-3.
