The Folsom Street East festival happens every year in NYC. It’s a street fair celebrating and serving the LGBT leather/fetish/kink community. I’ve always wanted to check it out, despite the fact that I am more vanilla than a dish of vanilla ice cream with vanilla sauce and a starter of vanilla-flavored Lactaid. I’ve never been able to make it to the festival before, but with the sun shining and nothing but free time on my plate, I took the A train down to Chelsea.
(Fair warning – my pictures are all pretty tame, but I guess they could be considered not safe for work, unless you work somewhere particularly awesome.)
The festival took place on West 27th Street, between Tenth and Eleventh Avenues. It started at 11, and I got there I think around 11:45. The guy on stilts with the umbrella was greeting everyone with high fives. Note the guy in the dog mask making a call. Gotta be hard to hear through that thing. On the other side of the street, notice the bare butt. There were a lot of those.
I confess, at first I was somewhat underwhelmed. Here’s the event stage – there were supposed to be performers, but there was just a DJ playing pop songs. (He was playing Erasure when I walked in, so no complaints there, but it wasn’t particularly exciting.) And there wasn’t much of a crowd. There was this, though.
Can’t have a queer event without assholes! The High Line park ran directly over the entrance (you can see the underside of it in both of the top two pictures). Most of the passers-by seemed to be enjoying the unexpected sights, but this guy was camped out all day, wasting his life. That’s all I ever want to say to these people – I don’t want to fight or yell. I just want to say – you’re wasting your life on hate. Stop wasting your life. You only get one.
I walked the length of the block and back again, and I was feeling a little disappointed. There weren’t a lot of people there, and the vendors were fine, but since I don’t really need a leather harness there wasn’t much for me to shop for. I people-watched for a bit, then stopped to rest, and a guy in a dog mask (a different guy) complimented my Doctor Who shirt and gave me a bottle of water, which was nice. But after maybe forty-five minutes I felt like I had seen all I needed to. So I left and got lunch at a nearby pub. After, I decided to swing back and give it one more chance. I had already paid my admission fee, after all, so I might as well get the most out of it.
The fair had picked up – there were a lot more people there. I walked to the end again, and even though the vendors still didn’t really hold my interest, it was fun to check out all the different people. I love when people get together to show their love for some interest they share, particularly when that interest is somewhat outside of the mainstream. (It’s one reason I love comic conventions so much.) There was just such a nice, friendly atmosphere. I was glad I had given it a second try, but I decided to leave. I wasn’t taking a lot of pictures – I don’t think anyone would have minded, but it seemed intrusive, particularly as this isn’t really my community. So I made my way to the exit. Then I stumbled onto this.
The New York Bondage Club was just beginning a demonstration! The guy in the red and black pants was laying down the mats as I walked by, so I stopped, figuring something was about to happen, and wound up with a front row seat as the crowd filled in behind me. He tied up the guy in the green and proceeded to swat him with a paddle. There were also clothespins on nipples, which made me wince a little. I took a lot of pictures, but I’m afraid this is the only one I can share without having to put an adult-content filter on my blog. After they were done, they hugged. It was very sweet.
I continued on my way towards the exit. I turned back and took a picture of the crowd.
Such a friendly bunch! I did not try the sausage, since I was still full from lunch.
My timing was perfect, because just as I got back to the front, the performers were finally starting on the stage.
That’s Will Sheridan, singer, rapper, and former college basketball player for the Villanova Wildcats (fun fact!), with his back-up dancers. He was fun and filthy and his performance was kick-ass. Seriously talented with a good sense of humor about everything – I liked him.
I didn’t get this guy’s name (and can’t find it online) but he came out and rapped during one of Sheridan’s songs.
There was a lull between performances, so I snapped some more crowd pics.
These were the hosts for the afternoon. The far left was the ASL interpreter, next to her is Farrah Moans, and on the far right is Paul Short. In the middle is a representative from Visual AIDS, one of the charities benefiting from the festival. Folsom Street East is a not-for-profit – money also went to the New York City Anti-Violence Project. So who did more good today – the organizers of this fetish festival, or the God-botherer with the sign?
These are The Glamz, a pop cover band, and girl, they werked! Stunning voices, great song selection – a Spice Girls medley, TLC’s “Waterfalls,” Scissor Sisters’ “Filthy Gorgeous,” Donna Summer’s “Bad Girls,” and a bunch more. They sang, they danced, they killed it.
There were more performers to come, but I was leathered out so I called it a day. Even if this isn’t quite my scene, the LGBT leather/fetish/kink community is always just so damn friendly it would have been impossible to leave this festival not in a good mood. Add awesome performances from Will Sheridan and The Glamz on top of that, and I was very glad I came. So thanks for a fun Sunday afternoon, Folsom Street East! See you next year. (Maybe.)
