San Francisco's SoMa neighborhood turned into one giant open-air party Sunday as the 43rd annual Folsom Street Fair ran from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., drawing crowds to a leather and alternative lifestyle festival that has become one of the city's biggest single-day gatherings. Admission was free, with organizers asking for donations at the entry gates, and local street closures paired with Muni reroutes stayed in effect through early Monday morning to accommodate the festivities.
The fair, as NBC Bay Area reported, stretched along Folsom Street between 8th and 13th streets. According to Secret San Francisco, this year's footprint actually spanned 16 blocks total in SoMa, bounded by 7th and 13th streets and Howard and Harrison streets, and included seven live performance stages, more than 200 exhibitors, and a dozen outdoor bars — among them longtime neighborhood fixtures like The Stud and SF Eagle.
A Suggested Donation With a Perk
Getting in didn't cost anything, and Secret San Francisco recommends a $20 donation. Per Folsom Street's own site, donors received a sticker good for drink discounts at the festival's bars. The fair itself dates to 1984.
The scale of the crowd is part of what makes those dollars add up. Per Wikipedia, the Folsom Street Fair draws an estimated 250,000 to 400,000 visitors annually and is the world's largest leather and kink festival.
Roots in Resistance
The fair didn't start as a spectacle — it began as an act of resistance. As FoundSF documents, the event was established in 1984.
That activist lineage still shows up in city policy today. San Francisco officials considered a proposed public-nudity ban in 2012, with exceptions for Folsom Street Fair and Pride; the prohibition would have taken effect only if the measure passed, according to the Los Angeles Times. Time Out reported that the LEATHER & LGBTQ Cultural District is in western SoMa.
Beyond One Day a Year
The organization behind the fair doesn't just show up once annually. In 2021, the nonprofit Folsom Street opened a permanent brick-and-mortar community center at 1286 Folsom Street, according to the Bay Area Reporter, offering year-round arts, educational, and social programming in the district.
Sunday's fair also served as the grand finale of San Francisco's Leather Pride Week, which had kicked off seven days earlier, on September 20, with the LeatherWalk procession starting at Eagle Plaza, per the LEATHER & LGBTQ Cultural District.
Getting Around SoMa This Weekend
None of it happened without a heavy transit lift. The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency closed local streets starting Saturday evening and rerouted four major Muni bus lines — the 9 San Bruno, 12 Folsom/Pacific, 19 Polk, and 27 Bryant — with those reroutes and closures remaining in effect through 5 a.m. Monday, according to SFMTA's own advisory.
Hoodline has covered the fair's evolution for years, including a push to open Eagle Plaza in time for the event back in 2019. This year's edition, the 43rd, offered free admission and extended beyond Folsom Street itself.
