The Up Your Alley Street Fair is returning to San Francisco's South of Market neighborhood Sunday, July 28.
The fair that caters to the leather and kink communities is run by the Folsom Street nonprofit, which also produces the much larger Folsom Street Fair slated for September 29 this year. Folsom Street Executive Director Angel Adeyoha, who is queer and nonbinary, said this year's goal is to "build a safe and beautifully-raucous container so people can kick off their leather season with us."
Up Your Alley will be from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., bound between Howard Street on the north, Harrison Street on the south, Ninth Street on the west and 11th Street on the east. There have been a few changes from prior years, Adeyoha said.
"Our clothing stuff [coat check] on 10th [Street] is moving to Dore [Alley], below Powerhouse, to give them a little more breathing room and safety," Adeyoha said. "Also the bicycle parking has moved to the top of Dore."
The fair originally started on Ringold Street in 1985 and moved to being centered at Dore in 1987, which had led to the small alleyway being used as the event's colloquial nickname by kinksters and BDSM enthusiasts the world over.
Three bars will be serving alcohol outside during the event — Powerhouse, the Eagle and the Foundry. Allowing the local businesses to make the alcohol profits is part of the event's neighborhood focus.
"We changed our model in 2021 to do a hybrid event permit with ABC [the California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control] so we could hold some of the larger pieces like security, sobering, and medical, and the bars can serve under a catering license to give them a crucial boost that, especially post-COVID, has been the thing that has kept their doors open," they said.
Adeyoha suggested people wear sunscreen. The forecast shows a partly sunny day.
"It's probably going to be pretty warm — make sure you hydrate. If you didn't put on sunscreen, a cute member of the Full Queer wrestling team or Fog Rugby can apply it," Adeyoha said, referring to the San Francisco Fog Rugby Football Club.
Robert Goldfarb, a gay man who is executive director of the Leather & LGBTQ Cultural District, will be staffing a booth at the fair. Last week, Goldfarb represented the leather district at a San Francisco Recreation and Parks Commission meeting where the panel approved naming a planned park at 11th and Natoma streets after Rachele Sullivan, a leatherwoman who was involved with both the district and Folsom Street for many years before her death in 2022. (See related story.) It is believed to be the first U.S. city park named after a leather leader.
"We'll have an outreach group at the Up Your Alley fair and always look forward to connecting with the community," Goldfarb told the B.A.R. in a phone interview.
Goldfarb said the district's fair space will have a photo booth. As of press time, he doesn't know where on the fairgrounds the booth will be.
"We look forward to having everyone out and about, post-COVID, on the streets," he said. "When people are at the fair, we hope they notice the leather pride flags on light polls, the poll banners, and the flag."
As the B.A.R. previously reported, placemaking signs have been installed in the district to promote awareness, and so too were leather flag decals placed on light poles in the area. As the B.A.R. reported, earlier this year, some decals were defaced with anti-police rhetoric and replaced.
There is a $15 suggested donation at the fair entrance, which gets people $2 off at the three outdoor bars.
For more information, go to folsomstreet.org.
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