This post originally appeared on VICE US
Folsom Street East is an annual street festival for BDSM and leather enthusiasts, providing a safe-space for public expressions of sexual identity. Formed in San Francisco in 1984 before expanding to cities like Berlin and New York, the nonprofit raises money for charities like Visual AIDS and the Anti-Violence Project by selling and celebrating all things fetish-friendly.
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Last weekend, NYC held its annual street fair on 27th Street and 11th Avenue, and I attended with a furry, an ABDL (Adult Baby/Diaper Lover), and my hetero-flexible friend of ten years who recently told me he wants to try out men to “make sure I’m not missing out on anything.”
The event was presided over by nightlife superstar GIANT on the mic, with performers and DJs providing a melodic backdrop to the screams of pleasure emanating from attendees. Within moments of entering the festival, we were dunked into a sea of shirtless men (and occasionally women) in leather harnesses, rubber catsuits, puppy masks, and more.
Vendors were selling decorative fetish gear, such as leather cuffs and pants, body jewelry, and bow-ties, and there was also a myriad of fetishistic performances going down. Several of NYC’s kink groups came out to play, too. The Human-Puppies were there, moshing and barking and being adorable, of course. The New York Bondage Club provided flogging demonstrations and tried recruiting bottoms for their weekly dungeon gathering. ONYX, a brotherhood of leathermen of color, also had a booth where its members provided literature and more BDSM tutorials.
Despite the somewhat-PG-13 filter to the event, I had an amazing time. Cock cages were locked, subs were punished, and butts were sniffed. All of the kinksters came out to have some old fashioned fun in the sun, which, for a group used to dark bars, dingy hotel rooms, and makeshift dungeons, was a welcomed change of scenery.
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