As Auckland builds back up towards a grand GLBT Pride celebration the likes of which it hasn’t seen since Hero, it might help to take into account other major celebrations of identity around the world. In particular there are a handful of leather events that shine a blazing light on the outer edges of our sexuality and pull it lovingly to our core. It takes strength of identity, a willingness to challenge perceptions, and major guts to run these events. Not only do the leaders of these organisations have to take on general perceptions of the GLBT community, but they’re often forced to defend our diversity against those within our own ranks who would have us bow quietly into the suburbs with our meagre social successes. Do we simply want to blend in comfortably or should we continue to celebrate our diversity as loudly as possible?


What if we could not only rally around our unique beauty but support the people and groups that make up the whole while at it? Having spent many of my adult years helping to run these treasured events, I strongly believe we should take note and find strength from those who head up these massive kink gatherings. Their drive and love for the brothers and sisters they serve is an inspiration that can perhaps help Auckland as it lays the groundwork for the future of its GLBT community.


The Grand Poobah of all fetish events is San Francisco’s Folsom Street Fair, commonly known as Folsom, held on the last Sunday of September along a broad asphalt stretch in the city’s infamous South of Market (SOMA) area. The first Folsom in 1984 was called “Megahood”. It was started (in the simplest of terms) to support local businesses, unite the diverse neighbourhood and to support the GLBT community amidst the devastating onset of HIV/AIDS. It was also an attempt to fight gentrification in an area that had been home to racial and sexual working class minorities. Its bold “only in San Francisco” flavour is now run by a dedicated non-profit group called Folsom Street Events and pulls nearly roughly 400,000 people together from all parts of the world. Although Folsom’s leadership doard is headed by president Jacob Richards, the day-to-day nitty-gritty of the mammoth event has been in the hands of executive director Demetri Moshoyannis since 1995.


Demetri’s original reasons for coming on board were simple, if not downright primal. “I love the leather and fetish communities of which I’m a part,” shares Demetri. “I love the men and the sexual expression and at the end of the day all of the hard work supports some really great charities too.” 
Folsom not only provides a unique, safe space for sexual expression, but it also has a positive impact on thousands of people in need. “Over the course of the year we end up donating to over 70 charities both locally and nationally… and sometimes even internationally,” says Demetri. Last year alone, the proceeds from Folsom totalled US$326,000 (NZ$387,000), but over their 27 years they’ve gifted nearly US$4.5m (NZ$5.3m) to worthy organisations. Definitely something to glow about!


It hasn’t always been an easy path for the fair. Great focus is paid to the city departments they rely on, such as police and sanitation, and the attention Folsom pays to the relationships is recognised and reciprocated. “Over time, we have developed a really great working relationship with the city and all of the various departments,” says Demetri. “Everyone knows how seriously we take it all and the city agencies respond accordingly.”
Demetri, however, takes the most pride in bringing the kink community out and together. “There is a moment in the early morning when the hundreds of exhibitors are mostly set up and you realise that there is an amazing little village that’s been created for the day where we get to celebrate our sexual freedom. “It’s pretty magical.”


Folsom has set a standard for public expression of identity that has been picked up by other major centres, including Berlin where Folsom Europe was born in 2004. As the child of a visionary group of German leathermen lead by Daniel Ruester, its purpose was to emulate the sense of brotherhood and community at events like Folsom, its little sister event Up Your Alley and the Cleveland Leather Annual Weekend, known as CLAW. It was while on his way back from Up Your Alley in 2003 that the first vision of Folsom Europe came to Daniel. “I was quiet excited about the nice weekend I had in San Francisco, but also a bit sad that I always had to fly to California to go to a fair like this,” he says. “So at some point during the return flight, I thought it’s time to change that. Why not have a street fair such as Dore Alley or Folsom Street Fair in Europe?”


In September of that year he returned to San Francisco and got Folsom’s support to create a new member of the Folsom family in Europe, joining New York’s east and Toronto’s north editions that were also in existence at the time. Folsom North no longer exists, but Folsom East and Folsom Europe still thrive in their respective cities. Even with the backing of the Folsom brand, Folsom Europe would not have flourished without amazing support from within the Berlin community, starting with local leather businesses such as RoB and Mr B. “They were not only sponsors but also great partners who inspired us to get better year by year and also produced the two major Folsom Europe parties, Perverts and Pig,” says Daniel. “Without that support, we might never have started Folsom Europe.”


Another strong backer was Regenbogenfonds Foundation, producers of Lesbisch-schwules Stadtfest, Europe’s largest GLBT street fair which celebrated its 19th year in 2011 with 450,000 visitors. “The director was a very active supporter of Folsom Europe from the first years”, remembers Daniel. “We did profit a lot from their experience with the legal processes of a fair (such as registration at diverse city district offices) and working together with the right companies building up all necessary needs for a fair.” It also didn’t hurt that the Berlin Lord Mayor at the time, Klaus Wowereit, who was an openly gay man and mayor of the city of Berlin since 2001, defended the fair from the start. “He opened closed doors at the city administration when needed and he welcomed the visitors of Folsom Europe in our official program every year since its first printing in 2005. Even a nationwide political campaign of the CDU (the conservative party in Germany) against him and his support of Folsom Europe did not stop him.”


However, the biggest challenge came from the residents of Schöneberg, the district where the fair takes place. The neighbourhood has two distinct groups, gays and conservative families (many of them older or with kids). Daniel remembers that “most gays (not all of them) were very supportive and welcoming, but we also had to deal with a protestant priest and his wife who were living on the street [where the fair was to take place]. In the end we tried to co-exist with them, especially because we only ‘appear’ one weekend a year.”


Although Daniel has left the Board and moved to Spain, he believes the fair must continue to challenge itself in order to stay alluring and vital. “I see a generational change in staff as a big advantage to try something new, something unusual and unexpected. The biggest mistake would be to just continue a concept the next seven years, hoping that everything will stay the same way.” Demetri mirrors this sentiment when looking to the future of Folsom. “Each year we brainstorm how we’d like to see the fair grow and change. In just the last five years we’ve created Venus’ Playground (our women’s area) and the erotic artists’ area. We’re always trying to stay responsive to the community’s needs and desires.”


Beyond the Folsom family of fairs, there is one other event that has stood the test if time since 1979 and deserves recognition for bringing together the fetish community unlike any other. Where Folsom and Folsom Europe both culminate in giant street gatherings, Chicago’s International Mister Leather (IML) occupies every inch of the city’s largest hotel through the last weekend in May, drawing tens of thousands of local and global visitors to it’s contest, epic vendor market and general carnal mayhem. 
I had the joy of helping to run the IML leather market as a volunteer for 10 years and can personally attest to its uniqueness. It’s true that the event turns a four-star hotel into a bit of a bathhouse for the long Memorial Day weekend, but within its walls the attendees are able to relax, expressing their desires and fetishes with delightful and relatively respectful abandon (if there is such a thing). Every shade of kink is represented in the halls of the hotel, a freedom not even found on the streets of San Francisco or Berlin. 


With the recent and sudden passing of IML coordinator and friend RJ Chaffin in June of this year, 22-year IML volunteer and leather market coordinator Bob Graves stepped in to share his perspective on what makes IML so valuable to the community. Bob believes one of IML’s greatest assets is its fantastic volunteer program. He explains that “each year hundreds of volunteers who work three shifts over the weekend in our various departments are offered a package which allows them to enjoy the events at no charge. This program allows more than just getting into events free. It develops a relationship with our fellow leather brothers and sisters from all over the world in a way which probably would not happen by just being an attendee of the event.”


Volunteers are not the only strength of IML, says Bob. “The relationship with the city of Chicago is quite remarkable. The past mayors have acknowledged the event in writings and the Chicago department of health is one of our vendors providing condoms throughout the weekend.” Although he travels from his home down in Orlando, Florida each year to help run the event, he marvels at how Chicago pays homage to our leather heritage year round. “I think the fact that we have the Leather Archives and Museum in Chicago, which is open to the local community and the world as a place where leather history is being preserved, is a great sign of the openness of the city to let people celebrate their lifestyle without prejudice or discrimination.”


If these spectacles sound tantalising and exotic, they are, but perhaps not entirely outside the reach of other major cities like Auckland. These wide-minded events draw massive crowds and revenue to the cities that host them, even in US states where same sex unions aren’t legal as they are in New Zealand. The brave souls who toil over creating these safe spaces do what they do for many reasons. Not only does their work support the fabric of our GLBT world, but the right to express our kinky linings holds great personal value for each of them. Those crafting the evolution of Auckland’s Pride should take strength from the work their leather-laden family has been doing overseas for decades. Determination, love of personal expression and maybe a dash of fearlessness can bring a fabulous event to life, leather or not, in the City of Sails. 


ARTICLE | Leif Wauters


PHOTOS | Chris Jepson. A freelance portrait and documentary photographer from London. He works regularly for the gay and fetish press in the UK but also for mainstream straight and commercial companies and charities in the UK and worldwide. You can see more of his work at www.chrisjepson.com.