Every summer a few blocks of SoMa give themselves over to leather, and the rest of us are lucky to live here for it. Up Your Alley, known to basically everyone as Dore (say "doree"), is the smaller, hometown counterpart to September's Folsom Street Fair. The same nonprofit runs both; the difference is temperament.
Folsom is the international blockbuster with a quarter-million people and busloads of tourists. Dore is the local one: gayer, grittier, more male (but all genders, expressions and identities are welcome), and packed with people who came to participate rather than gawk. Folsom Street itself has long billed it as the fair's "dirty little brother," and the shoe fits.
Keith A. Spencer
Andrea Campos
I once ran afoul for briefly calling Dore Alley a "sex fair." And let's be honest for a second because yes: there's plenty of sex happening at it. If that makes you uncomfortable then please don't go. The amount of nudity on display will make you feel things. But it is also more than that.
A history lesson
South of Market has been the leather heartland for decades. The neighborhood's first leather bar, the Tool Box, opened in the early 1960s on a site that is now, in the great San Francisco tradition, a Whole Foods. At its early-1980s peak, SoMa held something like sixteen leather bars, ten bathhouses and sex clubs, and eight leather shops.
Of that old guard, only three survive today: Mr. S Leather, Stompers Boots, and Blow Buddies. Most of the rest were lost to redevelopment and to City Hall's AIDS-era crackdowns on the places gay men gathered.
The fair itself was born from that crisis. Up Your Alley was founded in 1985 by Patrick Toner, who held the International Mr. Leather title that same year, together with Jerry Vallaire. It was conceived explicitly as a fundraiser for a community under siege. The first fair took place on August 25, 1985, not on Dore at all but on Ringold Alley, a notorious late-night cruising strip. Billed as a block party and t-dance and often just called the Leather Block Party, it was essentially a daytime beer bust with kissing booths and dunk-a-hunk games, all run to raise money.
It moved to Dore Alley in 1987, reportedly after Ringold's residents pushed back. Then came the hard math of the epidemic. By 1990, with much of the leadership lost or dying (Toner himself died in 1993), Up Your Alley and Folsom were folded into a single nonprofit structure, and Dore settled into the role it still plays.
Going to the fair itself
Sunday, July 26, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.
This is one of those "I hate crowds" moments. There's constant walking and pushing; no one is standing where they want to stand. Spilling beers. I honestly feel like a pick me girl in this environment.
The fair sits in the heart of SoMa, on Folsom Street between 9th and 10th plus Dore Alley itself, running from Howard down past Folsom, right in front of the legendary Powerhouse. Entry is a suggested donation, usually around $15 at the gates.
What you'll see: vendors hawking gear and toys, gogo dancers, DJ and performance stages, and a great deal of consensual public play. Floggings, bondage, pup play, the occasional human pony hauling a carriage, people getting spanked for a good cause. It is all very frank and joyful.
The party guide, night by night
The weekend runs Wednesday through Monday. Ticketed parties sell out, so buy early where you can, and assume the fine print (cash-only bars, long coat-check lines, strict dress codes) is real. Many of these I sourced from a very helpful guide by Andymatic. Give him some love.
WARNING: Many links ahead are NSFW. Click at your own risk (and reward).
Thursday, July 23
- Flag Alley at DNA Lounge is an evening for flaggers and flow artists first envisioned by the late Jeff Hettinger. This year it opens Flagger Destination Weekend, welcoming spinners and dancers from around the country and the world, with DJ Gregg on the decks.
- Tuff at 1015 Folsom is a newer arrival, a gear party born in Los Angeles and built around the iconic imagery of Tom of Finland. All gear is welcome: leather, latex, western, jocks, harnesses, the works. It made its San Francisco debut at Folsom last year and returns to kick off Dore.
- Horsemarket: Pulse is brand new for 2026, and it deserves a word of explanation since the Horsemarket name shows up four times this weekend. Horsemarket is a private, pre-registration-only party modeled on Europe's infamous Fickstutenmarkt, or "stallion and mare" format, in which attendees choose a role in advance and the evening proceeds from there. I've never been to this event but IIRC you apply to be a submissive; a chance to go in blindfolded and used.
Pulse, however, is the softer opening move: a more dance-forward Thursday taste of what is coming, with an internationally known DJ flown in for the occasion. There are no tickets at the door for Horsemarket events, so register ahead if it is your thing.
Friday, July 24
- Real Bad: Ritual at 1015 Folsom comes from the Grass Roots Gay Rights Foundation, which has been throwing events for more than thirty years and whose Folsom closing party, Real Bad, is an institution.
- Prime: Daddy Alley at Club Six, from TrophyDad, is a party for men in their prime, meaning gogos are required to be over fifty, and their admirers. Two floors: an upstairs of celebratory circuit sounds with resident DJ Neon the Glowgobear, and a downstairs Daddy Pit channeling the low-ceilinged, high-appetite energy of the old leather bars, with Madrid's DJ Charly. It started as one guy's fiftieth birthday.
- Bark Before Dark at The Stud, hosted by Pup Spark, is the pup-play social hour, part outdoor mingle, part indoor play space, all welcoming. You do not need to be into pup play to enjoy it; a broad slice of queer San Francisco turns out. Details land at sf.dog.
- Stank at Powerhouse is exactly what it sounds like, and not for the faint of nose. This is the city's musk party, an ode to the natural smell of men, complete with the infamous Ripe Pit Contest at midnight hosted by Spencer Stanks and sponsored by Mr. S Leather.
- SXTPS at DNA Lounge is a body- and sex-positive dance party for Black and Brown queer and trans people, founded by LA's DJ Kidd. It channels the underground club and rave sounds of Los Angeles, New York, and Chicago into a sweaty melting pot of house, techno, hip hop, disco, and Jersey club.
- Horsemarket: Fresh Meat is the Friday edition of the stallion-and-mare party, with first-time "mares" given preference on tickets. Register in advance.
- Alchemy at Public Works is a queer trance and progressive house night, a sound you almost never get at Dore.
Saturday, July 25
- Dore Party at Mr. S Leather is the in-store daytime hang, with the Back Alley Beer Garden open roughly noon to 6 (21 and up). The shop keeps extended hours all week if you need to gear up. (They're still RSVPing on Facebook.)
- Flagging in the Park at the National AIDS Memorial Grove is, quietly, one of the most San Francisco things that happens all weekend. A monthly picnic of music and color in the Grove takes on a special street-fair edition, with flow artists spinning flags in a secluded Golden Gate Park meadow while DJ Michele Miruski plays vocal house. Proceeds support the Grove. Bring sunscreen, something to sit on, and a wrap, because summer fog. There is no pressure to participate; you can simply sit in the beauty of it.
- Big Muscle Party at DNA Lounge, from BigMuscleBears, is an afternoon institution and, by many accounts, the hottest crowd of the weekend. Several hundred muscle guys of every size and their admirers fill the club's many rooms and wraparound balcony. Halfway through, you will meet the men of this year's Bare Chest Calendar, which has raised millions over its decades-plus run for PRC and its HIV and AIDS programs. It sells out, so line up early; and yes, grab a slice next door at DNA Pizza.
- M/M Spanking Party at the Folsom Street Community Center is the Dore edition of the Bay Area's men's spanking party, held in Folsom Street's own community space, the home base of the organization behind the fair. Registration is required and runs through a private form; the current link is posted on the andymatic.com/dore listing.
Sunday, July 26
The fair, obvi. But also:
- C*munion at Transform1060 runs a Sunday session from the afternoon to midnight.
- Romp: Dirty Discotheque at 1015 Folsom is the official closing tea dance of Up Your Alley. This year's theme is a glitter-drenched disco fever dream, with resident DJ Russ Rich at the helm of a seven-hour set, lasers by Ragerlazer, and a leather, fur, latex, rubber, and fetish dress code. It starts as the fair gates close.
- Deviants Adult Arcade at The San Francisco Mint is Folsom Street's own official afterparty, reclaiming Up Your Alley weekend as a multi-room playground of sound and spectacle across two floors of the Old Mint. Roughly 7 p.m. into the small hours.
- Horsemarket + Fornication is the weekend's premiere crossover, pairing the mares-and-stallions crew with the Fornication sex party for a drug-free, part-porn-show, all-debauchery send-off.
Lots of stuff that also happens Thursday and Monday. But the above should give you all the main highlights.
I don't know that I'm going this year. I typically make a very lowkey appearance at a sex party in a home above Powerhouse. 😂 It was all once my stomping ground in the 2010s, but nowadays I do more with a Kitchen Aid and sewing machine in Forest Knolls than most of this Dore Alley goodness.
Saul Sugarman is editor-in-chief and owner of The Bold Italic.
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