San Francisco’s Folsom Street Fair returns Sunday

San Francisco’s steamiest annual event is coming back Sunday.

Folsom Street Fair 2023 is kicking off Sunday, Sept. 24, in SoMa, celebrating the kink-forward event’s 40th year. 

Mama Celeste, one of Folsom Street’s board members, said this year’s “XL” theme will feature plus-size and body-positive hosts for various stages. One of those stages is the drag stage run by Oaklash, a drag events group directed by Celeste, and the Stud Collective, the group reopening the beloved Stud bar next year. Their stage will be on Ninth and Harrison streets, where the Stud’s former location once stood, and will be fundraising for the bar’s new home. 

“This is a really fun opportunity for an adults-only, do-your-thing, do-whatever-you-want, go-crazy-on stage,” Celeste said. 

The fair is also set to feature a playground stage, go-go dancers, rope demonstrations and a wrestling stage, among other antics. 

Folsom Street Fair has been the centerpiece of the city’s BDSM subculture since 1984, when SoMa was, among other things, a hotbed for San Francisco’s leather and kink scenes. Today, Folsom Street Fair is known for being the world’s largest kink event. Folsom Street, the organization behind the fair, also acts as an arts and culture nonprofit.

Of Sunday’s anniversary street fair, Celeste said: “It’s going to be weird, and that’s what it’s all about.”