Can there be too much of a good thing? SANDY COHEN surveys the open-minded, tolerance-rules vibe at two San Francisco festivals.
Chains and leather are popular at San Francisco's Folsom Street Fair. (AP Photo/Sandy Cohen)
Revelers take over the streets of San Francisco. (AP Photo/Sandy Cohen)
Sylvester Speaker and his partner, Spunky, show off their costumes at the San Francisco LoveFest. (AP Photo/Sandy Cohen)
A topless brunette in a black miniskirt was strapped to a wooden cross at the Charity Spanking Booth. A bevy of men in leather harnesses and matching shorts shuffled by, snapping photos. Nearby, a corseted woman led a man old enough to be her grandfather by a leash. His shirt read "Slave."
Police on patrol hardly noticed a man wearing little more than tennis shoes and body jewelry.
The Folsom Street Fair was in full swing Sunday.
The annual event, which bills itself as "the largest leather, alternative and fetish street fair in the world," filled five blocks of San Francisco with various brands of sexual deviance. There are floggers, collars, corsets and harnesses for sale, plus lubes, sex toys and porn aplenty.
For 23 years, the fair has raised funds for health and youth charities. Last year, its sponsors donated more than $285,000 to local nonprofits, said Demetri Moshoyannis, executive director of Folsom Street Events.
"The creativity and the energy that people bring to this event is very unique to the San Francisco Bay area," he said. "There really is nothing like it in the world."
Indeed, where else can you see live gay sex in the middle of a public street? Or indulge in a spanking session that raises money for charity?
As one participant put it, "It's like Christmas if you're into leather."
Wild revelers -- even naked ones -- don't command much attention from police, who only get involved if things turn criminal. The Folsom Street Fair and the raucous LoveFest, which took place on the same weekend this year, are practically problem-free, said Dewayne Tully, spokesman for the San Francisco Police Department.
"San Francisco has a long-standing reputation for tolerance and anything goes," he said, "and we try to accommodate that attitude as much as possible."
The city is proud of its diversity and happy to celebrate it publicly, said David Miree, a spokesman for the mayor's office.
"It's another example of why the city is a great, wonderful and kind of zany place to visit," he said.
Fairs like Folsom Street's, which organizers say draws more than 300,000 people each year, make alternative lifestyles more accessible, said John Adams, 40, a professional "dom" who works as a computer consultant by day.
"People are realizing that it's ok to want to be spanked," said Adams, who explained that the "leather community" encompasses various forms of bondage and discipline, domination and submission and torture play.
For those who prefer being wrapped in rope and suspended above the street from heavy metal hooks, there's a booth that will take care of you. Ditto for fans of skintight latex who want to be bound straightjacket-style while a corseted mistress cracks an unforgiving whip.
Meanwhile, Saturday's LoveFest brought out an equally colorful gathering of costumed revelers. Semi-trucks decked out with decorations and massive sound systems paraded down the city's main thoroughfare, blasting electronic music. Dancers in feathers and fake fur followed them to the civic center, which became a giant disco featuring heavyweight DJs Paul Oakenfold and Grandmaster Flash.
There were 20 DJ-filled and decoration-adorned floats in all, each commanding its own audience of dancers. Whimsy, rather than leather, is key to the costumes. Some dancers shimmied on stilts, others wore foam giraffe heads atop their own, while still others went naked or topless.
Beer and booze stands kept the crowd lubricated. When their platform-clad feet tired, they relaxed on the grass in Civic Center Plaza, smoking joints or cigarettes and munching on standard fair snacks like garlic fries and beef on a stick.
More than 75,000 people boogied at the base of city hall at last year's LoveFest, which is modeled after Berlin's Love Parade.
Like the Folsom Street Fair, the LoveFest shares the same open-minded, tolerance-rules vibe organic to the city by the bay.
"San Francisco is a city that's always supported its subcultures, and that's what the LoveFest and Folsom Street Fair are all about," said Corey West, a 34-year-old software engineer who wore a bunny suit to the dance party and a leather shorts-suit to the fetish fair. "The costumes just add to the fun and frolic."
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asap contributor Sandy Cohen is an AP entertainment writer based in L.A.
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