FOLSOM STREET FAIR 2011
I’m honest in saying that I had zero interest in going to the Folsom Street Fair this past September when VIP tickets to the 40th Anniversary Party of Falcon Studios unexpectedly came across my desk. The glossy tickets reflected the light perfectly while I hoped to give them to some willing and deserving participants who would be going for the leather fest since I would not be. I had only been to the fair once before but I was certainly a much different person then and it really hadn’t crossed my mind to go again. When Jacques sat across from me the weekend prior at Lakeside in Wynn Las Vegas asking, “Well, have you even thought about going to Folsom Street this year?” all I could think to myself is, “I am now!”
Folsom Street Fair is the finale to a huge week of leather events, parties and entertainment benefiting various charities throughout the Bay Area . I didn’t arrive until Saturday afternoon and literally crashed with my generous friend Mikel I’ve known for years. After settling in off my United flight from PSP, I showered and met up with my BFF Brian, better known as “Jack Ryan” and pressed it to the Falcon party that was in conjunction with its brother company Raging Stallion’s 10th Anniversary infamous Folsom Weekend Party. Our town car dropped us off at the door of Mezzanine and what I expected to be VIP and exclusive was more like “the more the merrier” so we adapted and had fun nonetheless.
Once inside, local leatherman and owner of Gear on Sunny Dunes porn star Rik Jammer was looking pumped up and delicious while posing for photos. Sister Roma from the San Francisco Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence and I reunited quickly and had some special giggles about days gone by. Falcon man Landon Conrad was upstairs with photographer Mocha, beefy god Angelo Marconi roamed the dark outreaches of the club while inked-up Alessio Romero nodded at me towards the end of the bar over his beer. The club was packed and the music bumping. Dinner called us away and the car quickly came back around to scoop us up towards food. The town was koo-koo with homomasculinity and I was loving every minute of it.
Eureka Lounge was quite busy for dinner but luckily we were seated rather quickly. I was thrilled to finally sit down for a minute and relax from the rushing of my arrival into San Francisco earlier in the day. Our delicious dinner included pot roast, gumbo and duck pate with espresso and a latte for energy after. Brian soon had the car scoot us down Market Street towards Rebel where Chi Chi LaRue was DJ’ing and Sister Roma was hosting gaggles of gorgeous gays and their admirers. The club was quite smaller and ridiculously packed full of go-go dancers, drunk patrons and a man who was growing annoyed by it all named Steven Michael. I just don’t do clubs anymore and my patience level is low at best. I know when it’s time for me to go.
I left Brian there at Rebel to fend for himself and my taxi shamelessly delivered me to a very unique establishment for men-only called Blow Buddies before dropping me at home moments later. Shockingly enough… a taxi showed me the way there twice during the weekend. Someone told me that Blow Buddies would be a great place to drop of some promotional cards for my website iamstevenmichael.com so I did. I thank me for such a brilliant idea since I’m the one who had it. It seemed that the men inside the club really appreciated what my website could offer. I felt very pretty from all the attention of the gentleman callers cursing and perusing about me like vultures. Just saying.
Sunday morning was gloomy and cool so rushing to the Fair wasn’t something I felt like I needed to do right away. The windows were open and a breeze blew through Mikel’s place while I simply enjoyed being away from it all for a few days. I could look out the window and easily find something to interest me from skyscrapers to people walking the streets so I lived that feeling for a bit before cleaning up and connecting again with Brian to head over. I had taken a few pieces of leather but when it was all said and done I’m glad I didn’t kill myself over it because I really wasn’t feeling like getting up in it. I threw on a thermal with a t-shirt option underneath with shorts and pressed it over to Folsom for the Fair.
The city was alive with the celebration of leather, fetish and BD/SM lifestyle. It was everywhere from the leather flags that blew in the breeze or the bare-ass in the chaps walking in front of you. As I walked the streets of San Francisco I recalled my first Folsom Street Fair even walking by the same hotel we stayed at in ’97 which brought the entire thing full circle. I was living in Ft. Lauderdale and just getting started in the leather scene. I was very fresh to it all and quite impressionable.
During my time in Ft. Lauderdale, I was asked by the owners of the Ramrod to enter Mr. South Florida Drummerboy, a preliminary to Mr. Florida Drummerboy. I knew I wasn’t a “boy” per-say but I competed and won both contests which took me to San Francisco for the international finals of Mr. Drummer and Drummerboy. I was a hard sell to most in the Florida leather brotherhood because “old guard” tends to shy away from anyone that they don’t know. To most of them I was just a stripper who worked in leather bars. To many, it was a fluke that I won. While learning about myself I figured that a crash course would be best so I did it on stage. How did I win without much support of the community in large, you ask?! Perseverance… and I know what judges want to see from a winner.
Once I made it to the finals I competed against six other contestants but also knew that I really wasn’t the one that should win. During the days leading up to the International Mr. Drummer finals we “boys” submitted to the Mr Drummer contestants’ needs and assisted in anything called upon doing since they would be the ones voting on the winner for International Mr. Drummerboy. It was here I shot my first of many magazine spreads. While others kneeled to one knee in full submission I found myself taking a sold stance behind my contestant and had a slightly bowed head, hands cupped behind me. Like I mentioned, I knew I wasn’t what the title requested but I was hellbent on doing well to put the naysayers in their place.
In the end, the Mr. Drummer contestants voted and three times there was a tie between another and myself. Finally the tie broke and I thankfully placed first-runner up. Everything happened perfectly and I was thrilled it was over. Jeffrey Adler, Mr. Florida Drummer won International Mr. Drummer and I was very proud to be part of that. My boyish goatee quickly became a fu manchu mustache and I hit the streets and dance floors until the wee hours of the a.m. The next day was my very first taste of the Folsom Street Fair and what an open lifestyle in fetish could be like. Dressed in some skimpy strap shorts being led around by a daddy from Amsterdam, I was living hard. Flash forward fourteen years and there I was walking by it all again.
If one can imagine it then it’s possible at the Folsom Street Fair. Walking up I realized that it wasn’t a fluke that public nudity had become quite present and accepted since seeing some dangling cocks lining the walls of the Castro. There were pierced clits and bare breasts for the straight men and horny lesbians while an open scene of oral sex happened in the midst of amateur photographers with their smartphones positioned for the money shot. The porn star getting blown was carrying on a conversation with his buddies while the hoard of perverts breathed heavily waiting. I found it all very amusing.
Poor victims were restrained to St. Andrew’s crosses while bare backs bled with marks and bruises from whips and floggers. People watched gawking with baby strollers and children at crotch level. Remember the nudity?! Not pretty and so inappropriate. Beefy Titan porn stars signed autographs for hot blonde trannies as we passed by soaking in every angle of every moment. At the Folsom Street Fair, leathermen and women unite and celebrate their individuality living for the time they have. Check out Folsom Street Fair for all the details. Make your plans now and don’t wait until the week before like I did. Sadly, I missed some great parties before I arrived.
2011 © PULP
