For Folsom Street Fair's 39th year celebrating sex positivity and all things leather, tens of thousands of festival attendees crowd SF’s Leather and LGBTQ Cultural District Sunday for what felt like the first typical Folsom celebration since the pandemic began.
The parade of humanity that moved up and down Folsom Street between 8th and 13th streets during this past Sunday's Folsom Street Fair 2022 was a welcome sight. While the crowd at last year's rebranded "Megahood2021" event was a bit leaner — 40,000 people attended the 2021 event that was named to pay homage to Folsom Street Fair's original roots — fetishists and fetish tourists alike gathered at the Folsom Street Fair for this year's sunny festivities in more typical large numbers.
Happy Folsom Street Fair! pic.twitter.com/mhk7jzJDCK
— Senator Scott Wiener (@Scott_Wiener) September 25, 2022
According to the Chronicle, an estimated 100,000 kinksters thronged the over 13 city blocks closed off for the festival. Over 200 vendors were onsite from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday selling all kinds of leather goods, accessories, novelty pins, and foodstuffs.
Also among the booths yesterday was a pop-up vaccination site hosted by SFDPH. Those looking to receive either their first or second monkeypox vaccine from the Danish pharmaceutical company Jynneos could do so — with little to no wait.
For the first time since these vaccine units became available in San Francisco, out-of-towners could also receive a monkeypox vaccine from the city health department; non-residents wanting to get inoculated needed to fill out a questionnaire and confirm that this was either their first or second monkeypox vaccine dose; second doses were made available to those who were at least 28 days out from their last shot.
Sunday’s celebration felt like an experience punctuated by releases— literally and figuratively speaking. The sense of joy that against all odds, the largest leather festival in the world managed to navigate the pandemic and return in true form was palpable.
In case you didn’t get a chance to bump harnesses with others at Folsom this past weekend, here are some of our favorite (obviously NSFW) moments posted on Twitter and Instagram.
#FOLSOM photo moments with friends and fam. pic.twitter.com/4RRyACtVHC
— Sister Roma (@SisterRoma) September 26, 2022
Folsom pic.twitter.com/nJtTGNYdCi
— Shin (@ShinazaS) September 26, 2022
Sir sent me this awesome picture of @Pup_Leo and @rubberdeer at Folsom!! ❤️ pic.twitter.com/D2GVWjFmun
— Stormy Kittyhawk 🔜 MFF🎈🎈 (@StormyKittyhawk) September 25, 2022
Related: NSFW Photos: 'Megahood2021' Was a Return to True Folsom Form and IRL Kink
Top photo by Matt Charnock/SFist