Author Topic: Folsom Street Fair - San Francisco  (Read 1127 times)

Offline Lois

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Folsom Street Fair - San Francisco
« on: October 02, 2007, 05:51:49 PM »
It happens the last weekend in every September!

Leather and corsets and whips, oh my
Folsom Street Fair draws the bondage crowd - and plenty of people who just like to watch

Monday, October 1, 2007

Jeff Dee of Monterey presses flesh with partiers identifying themselves by their stage names, Andrea Storm of San Jose and Zoe Zane of Campbell, at the Folsom Street Fair on Sunday. Tracy Baumback of Pacifica dances in a cage dangling near St. Joseph Church on 10th Street.

Thousands of people showed up for the 24th annual festival.


Folks in leather, chaps and thongs throng Folsom Street Fair
Heather Knight, Chronicle Staff Writer


Monday, October 1, 2007

It's not usually polite to stare, but Phil "Tats" Payton doesn't mind being ogled. When you're a 69-year-old man covered in more than 100 tattoos - including all over your bald head - and sporting a leather vest, chaps and a nose ring a few inches in diameter, it comes with the territory.

"I've gotten used to it," he said as he was stopped by strangers asking to take his photograph. "It's my own fault - I can't blame anyone else."

Payton and others bedecked in leather - or in many cases, nothing at all - were the stars of Sunday's 24th annual Folsom Street Fair. The San Francisco rite is a celebration of leather culture and sexual fetishism, and draws not only those who enjoy the lifestyle, but also those who enjoy gawking at them.

"This is like Disneyland - you'll never see anything like this in the world," said Jaeleen Bennis, who in her long skirt and tank top could just as easily have been shopping at Bloomingdale's.

Folsom Street, once a gay hub with bathhouses and sex clubs, is now filled with restaurants, condos and furniture stores. But on the last Sunday of September, it shuts down between Seventh and 12th streets as thousands of people pack the festival, which raises money for charity.

This year was no different, as couples led each other up and down the street with dog collars and leashes, men in thong underwear played Twister, women in stilettos and fishnet stockings spilled out of their corsets, and shoppers browsed stalls selling products such as baseball caps reading "Master" or "Slave" and a book entitled "Dungeon Emergencies and Supplies."

"Very painful - very nice," said a woman as she fingered a "Stingy little pocket paddle" that came in red or black.

In the next stall over, Rodger Rosenberg explained why it's much more enjoyable to be tied up with rope made of 100 percent silk than rope made of nylon or hemp. By noon, he already had sold silk ropes to people from England, Ireland and Spain.

Tom Maiolo came all the way from Tampa, Fla., for his first Folsom Street Fair. Wearing a leather vest and chaps with no pants, he said at noon that he was already having a fabulous time.

"So far, so good," he said. "I love this, and I'm just getting started."

He said he recognized some stars of porn movies he had seen and said they were like celebrities to him. Asked if they would ever hold an event like this in Tampa, he said, "No. Hardly."

People paid money to be flogged in front of crowds of onlookers. One man looked like he was crying, and red lash marks covered his back.

"Lovely start to a Sunday afternoon!" exclaimed a man with a microphone trying to persuade people to get flogged.

Two women who said their screen names are Zoe Zane and Andrea Storm dressed as dirty martinis in teeny silver dresses shaped like martini glasses and bra cups decorated like green olives.

"It's totally fun," Storm said. "I don't get very far because I keep getting photographed. I feel like I'm on the red carpet."

Not everybody was into the scene, though. Jason Reed stood in boots and a thong and posed for pictures outside a stall run by SX Video, which makes gay porn movies.

"I'm just here to work - it's not really my thing," said Reed, who works in the company's marketing department. "They think I look good, so they want me to walk around in a jockstrap."

He got a good view of all the passers-by - sometimes, too good a view.

"Some of them who walk around naked really shouldn't be," he said.

Inside the stall was a wall of dildos and leather hoods. Bob Findle, the company's creative director, said it's fun to see people come from all over the world for a true San Francisco event.

"This is what San Francisco's about - being crazy and expressing yourself," he said. "Where else could you do this?"




 
So much oppression in our culture is based on shame about sex: the oppression of women, of cultural minorities, oppression in the name of the (presumably asexual) family, oppression of sexual minorities. We are all oppressed. We have all been taught, one way or another, that our desires, our bodies, our sexualities, are shameful. What better way to defeat oppression than to get together in communities and celebrate the wonders of sex?
The Ethical Slut: A Guide to Infinite Sexual Possibilities

Offline KissyFace

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Re: Folsom Street Fair - San Francisco
« Reply #1 on: October 02, 2007, 06:10:43 PM »
That sounds fantastic!!  It's so far away.

Offline NightStalker73au

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Re: Folsom Street Fair - San Francisco
« Reply #2 on: October 02, 2007, 07:07:17 PM »
would love to attend it sometime
I stalk the night, looking for her
My next victim to take away from here
She will be the prize to my collection
A joy for me to hold and use at my discretion
I belong to the night, stalking it and surveying
taking what I need to suffice my desires
I am the NightStalker

Offline Vivienne

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Re: Folsom Street Fair - San Francisco
« Reply #3 on: October 02, 2007, 07:18:39 PM »
I'ld luv 2 check it sometime ure there, Em!! :D :emot_kiss.gif:
putting the cart before the horse is just a matter of perspective

Offline Lois

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Re: Folsom Street Fair - San Francisco
« Reply #4 on: October 03, 2007, 03:26:31 PM »
Feel free to come!  I'd love to have company, and I've never been to it, so it would be great fun!
So much oppression in our culture is based on shame about sex: the oppression of women, of cultural minorities, oppression in the name of the (presumably asexual) family, oppression of sexual minorities. We are all oppressed. We have all been taught, one way or another, that our desires, our bodies, our sexualities, are shameful. What better way to defeat oppression than to get together in communities and celebrate the wonders of sex?
The Ethical Slut: A Guide to Infinite Sexual Possibilities

Offline NathanL
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Re: Folsom Street Fair - San Francisco
« Reply #5 on: October 03, 2007, 08:57:55 PM »
Fuck the golden gate bridge; that's what I go down to san francisco!
Don't give up
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To the victor goes the spoils

Offline Andering REDDSON

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Re: Folsom Street Fair - San Francisco
« Reply #6 on: October 10, 2007, 06:22:29 AM »
Shit! I was in S/F literally the day before for my drill, and I didn’t know anything about it.
First they came for the Communists, and I didn’t speak up, because I wasn’t a Communist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I didn’t speak up, because I wasn’t a Jew.
Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn’t speak up,  because I was a Protestant.

Then they came for me, and by that time there was no one  left to speak up for me.

Rev Martin NIEMOLLER, 1945

(That part about Catholics doesn’t apply to me, though- Guess they already got me.)