Folsom Street Events names new leader
A leatherwoman with a background in nonprofit management has stepped into one of the most pivotal roles in San Francisco’s leather and kink community. Sarah Patterson has been named executive director of Folsom Street Events, officials announced Wednesday, Jan. 29.
She’ll be at the helm of the nonprofit behind San Francisco’s annual Folsom Street Fair, the world’s largest fetish event that attracts 250,000 people, and its smaller Up Your Alley event, which draws 15,000.
“This was a onceinalifetime opportunity that I did not feel I could pass up,” Patterson told The Chronicle. “I also felt like Folsom deserved to have someone in the role who believed it was a onceinalifetime opportunity.”
The two events present public kink demonstrations, dozens of vendors and highprofile musical acts in the city each year — all on a payasyoucan basis, with much of the planning and production done through a wide network of volunteers. Now in its 37th year, Folsom Street Events has donated more than $7 million to charity.
“The kink community has a really deep history of service,” Patterson says. “Folsom Street Fair would not be possible without incredible levels of volunteerism.”
Patterson’s appointment works as a counterweight to the perception that leather and kink communities are largely male. Though that can be true, Patterson points to the fair’s past: Kathleen Connell cofounded Folsom Street Fair with Michael Velario, and Folsom Street Events’ current board president is Jennifer Schuster.
“Women have been involved in the planning and organizing of kink and leather events for decades,” Patterson says, noting that she has been involved in the leather community for more than 10 years. In addition to her passion for Folsom Street Events’ mission, Patterson has a long history of managing nonprofits, including an environmental justice nonprofit and the Persist Health Project, a nonprofit she founded for sex workers and trafficking survivors in New York City.
As for the fair’s future, Patterson says she doesn’t plan to be prescriptive but will listen to the various constituencies in the leather community as they advocate for what’s important to them. Already, though, she and her staff are discussing ways to make their events more accessible for those with physical disabilities.
“It is the premier fetish event in the world,” Patterson says. “Maintaining that legacy is incredibly important to me.”