As the Bay Area prepared for the 2025 Folsom Street Fair, I wrote a special newsletter September 25 for the Bay Area Reporter’s readers to help them prepare for the festivities. There is also a version posted to Instagram. Among recent newsletters, it exceeded all but the paper’s breaking news alerts:
Harness the fun of Folsom weekend
You know you’re in San Francisco when Sunday best means leather, latex, and lace.
That’s right – it’s Folsom weekend! ⛓️
The world’s largest celebration of kink, and one of the city’s best-attended annual attractions, began over 40 years ago to preserve a community’s culture during the early days of the AIDS epidemic, and the beginnings of gentrification in the South of Market district.
This year, the Bay Area Reporter decided to provide you an exclusive newsletter edition as your guide to the weekend’s festivities. For our print edition out today, I spoke with Folsom Street’s Executive Director Angel Adeyoha about what to expect at Sunday’s mega event.
Oops, you (probably) missed it!: Among the hottest tickets in town this weekend is for Sneaks, best known as Polyglamorus’ annual Up Your Alley weekend party in late July. After announcing a new Folsom weekend edition, set for September 27, online tickets quickly sold out. There will be a “very small number” of tickets at the door, organizers confirmed. Sneaks Folsom 2025 starts at 10 p.m. at The Mint, 88 Fifth Street.
I also made sure to ask community folks, “What part of Folsom weekend could you not live without?”
🏳️🌈 Robert Goldfarb, the executive director of the Leather & LGBTQ Cultural District: “One of the events I always hit is the Mr. S Leather alley party. They close down the alley next to Mr. S, have a DJ and beverages. That for me is a don’t miss event!”
The Geared Up Alley party at Mr. S., 385 Eighth Street, will be from noon-6 p.m. on September 26 and 27. Admission is free.
🤠 LGBTQ nightlife promoter West Walker: “I absolutely can’t miss the fair, along with the parties Real Bad, Big Muscle, the Mr. S Customer Appreciation beer garden, and the SF Eagle’s patio.”
Big Muscle is at DNA Lounge, 375 11th Street, from 1 to 7 p.m. on September 27. A limited number of tickets are available at the door. The Eagle’s Party on the Patio there, at 398 12th Street, is from 1 to 7 p.m. on September 28. Real Bad is sold out.
✨ SF Office of Transgender Initiatives Executive Director Honey Mahogany: “Folsom Street Fair often has really great live music! Over the years they have had local, national, and even international talent grace their stages. It’s always a treat!”
This year, the fair’s headliner is Kentucky-raised, Colombian American queer artist Cain Culto. The fair, on September 28, has a suggested donation of $10-$20, and runs from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Big Events: As should be clear enough by now, the volume of visitors means tickets to the big events September 27 can be hard to come by. Luckily, if that’s your forte, tickets for Electroluxx Folsom at Public Works, 161 Erie Street, are still for sale and may be your best. Eventbrite tickets are currently $81, plus fees. Electroluxx brings queer culture together from across categories – art as well as performances punctuate dancing through the fog machine on the dance floor and the fog above the street outside. Electroluxx Folsom features four stages, including three indoor dance rooms and an outdoor silent disco, and runs 9:30 p.m. to 4 a.m.
Eventbrite tickets to Folsom Street’s official Saturday party, Magnitude at SVN West, 10 Van Ness Avenue, are still available at $138 plus fees. It runs from 9 p.m. until the morning hours.
Kink ink! But Folsom weekend is about so much more than partying! From horny Bay Area lesbian vampires at sea on a cruise to the Dom/sub, Daddy/boy interpersonal dynamic explored with brio and impeccable detail, our arts writer Jim Piechota takes us on a tour of Kink ink!, the latest in books on kink, leather, BDSM.
Latine leather community events: Powerhouse, Cine+Mas SF Latino Film Festival, and the Queer Latinx Social Club are joining together to present two events for the Latine leather community. On September 26 at 5 p.m., Powerhouse, 1347 Folsom Street, will screen “Encuerados,” a 30-minute documentary about nine Latino men in the leather scene. Admission is free.
On September 27 from 6 to 9 p.m., Powerhouse will host a Queer Latine Leather Happy Hour. Admission is also free.
Event organizer Jimmy Carrillo stated, “Representation matters — not just on screen, but in our community spaces. These events uplift Latine leather legacies and create a safe, celebratory space for queer Latines during one of San Francisco’s most iconic weekends.”
Censorship: From the most-storied historic organizations to the community’s biggest brands, censorship by Instagram has become a threat to the queer community’s freedom of expression, according to five content creators the B.A.R. spoke with in recent weeks who say their accounts have been unfairly policed, or even taken down entirely without clear reasons. Read my thorough report.
So, what did you think?
Send feedback by hitting reply or emailing keepintouch@ebar.com.
It’s my hope you feel a little more prepared to be a little more out, a little more proud, a little more outrageous.
Because Folsom 2025, like so many of our stories, is a fractal of queer magic that can only happen in the Bay Area.
John Ferrannini,
Assistant Editor
John Ferrannini 