Thousands of people in leather, latex and leashes — if not nothing at all — descended on San Francisco’s South of Market neighborhood Sunday for the fetish festival affectionately known as the Folsom Street Fair’s dirty little sibling.
The Up Your Alley Street Fair and Fetish Festival, also dubbed Dore Alley after the SoMa street that sees most of the action, brought a colorful crowd to the city’s historic Leather District for an afternoon of raunchy revelry.
Kat, who declined to share her full name, said she relishes the chance to let her freak flag fly in a public setting.
“I’m happy to do what we do but out in the sunshine and in the middle of San Francisco,” she said.
Campbell resident Thib Guicherd-Callin siad he’s been a Dore Alley devotee since 2001. On Sunday, he showed up in a sartorial homage to Tom of Finland’s classic drawings of leather daddies.
For Cobalt, the event represents sexual liberation.
“Nobody is ashamed of their body here,” they said. “I grew up in a conservative family and the idea of showing off or anything sexual was taboo.”
Mischa C. and Stef S. have been attending for 20 years and prefer Dore Alley because it feels more queer than its bigger sibling, Folsom Street Fair.
“This is a fun place to come,” Stef said. “And I can dress like this without getting looked at cross-eyed.”
San Franciscan Felix M., who wore a pair of ass-less cowhide chaps, platform boots, a leather vest, and a cowboy hat thrifted Haight Street Costumes, said he enjoys the fair’s unparalleled diversity.
Warren S. said he welcomes the fair’s convergence of various subgroups in the kink community. “It’s fun to have a crossover of the furry side and leather side,” he said.
While all the whips, chains and masks can feel overwhelming at first, Austin T. said it’s all love under the costumes.
“You see people in the most ‘intimidating’ looks,” he said, “but when you talk to them, they’re just the most friendly teddy bears.”
Aero S., a Minnesota native, called the fair a people-watching paradise, a place to see and be seen. And with a shiny black-and-orange latex bodysuit on Sunday, they were dressed to turn heads themselves.
That’s the fun of it, they said: “us watching the people and the people watching us.”
Some folks said Dore Alley was another good reason to strip down in front of thousands of onlookers.
Ray Deberry, who wore nothing but a backpack and purple cock ring, said he’s just thrilled at the chance to “walk around naked.”
