Folsom bacchanal celebrates kink, sex
Within moments of arriving at the Folsom Street Fair, Natanael Gonzalez and Jose Saldana stripped off all their extraneous clothing. This was not the place for modesty.
“I feel like everyone comes here to enjoy themselves and feel free,” said Gonzalez of Seattle. He wore tiny leather underwear and glistened with sweat. “Everyone here is nonjudgmental. We wear costumes and dance and live truly for ourselves. It makes me want to get spanked.”
“Oh, I can help with that,” said Saldana of Reno giggling.
Nearly 400,000 naked and partially clothed men and women crowded onto Folsom Street between Eighth and 13th streets for the annual kaleidoscope of kink — known far and wide as the world’s biggest leather event.
The fair included the usual assortment of sadomasochistic erotica. There were men and women being dragged around on leashes, wearing pig noses and leather dog masks, pull-
ing carts or crawling around in cages with dog toys or in cribs wearing diapers. There were piercings where one would think they couldn’t possibly be and bloodied backs covered in lash marks.
There was cross-dressing and no dressing, people being tied up, caned, whipped and humiliated. A charity spanking booth was set up, where participants were allowed to donate to charities in exchange for a flogging, whipping or even a good hearty tickle at one of the dozen or so public whipping posts.
“People get to explore an area of their sexuality that might not have been previously explored,” fairgoer Ken Curr said. “They’re real people doing things you might have just read about. It opens up people’s eyes to what is really out there.”
And, Curr noted, “It’s not the kind of thing you would ever see in Texas.”
More than 200 booths sold everything from handcuffs to rubber penises to “cocktails.” There were stages on alleys and cross streets, with music, dancing, acrobatics, a naked form of gymnastics, suspension and bondage shows, whose proceeds benefit local and national charities, organizers said.
One of those spectacles caught the eye of Justin Hopkins of Chesterson, Ind. An older man with a wrinkled face and a potbelly wearing a diaper printed with tiny pigs was being whipped.
“Is that a guy wearing a diaper?” he said in disbelief to his friend, Ronnie Kloak.
Thick pink welts and drops of blood rose on the man’s back. He shrieked and groaned with each lash, calling out for more.
“That’s actually pretty cool,” Hopkins said, walking closer for a better view. “I think it’s great that this city allows us to express our sexual selves. You can’t find this in any other major city, especially in the Midwest. I think that’s partly why America is so great.”
Misty Lee of Santa Cruz said the freedom of sexual expression is what makes the event so popular.
“You can be what you want, when you want, whether it’s wearing clothes or no clothes,” she said. “I love the people watching and seeing what new kinky things there are out there. It’s a nonjudgmental place to explore.”