Folsom Europe: A glimpse into liberal, sexual, queer Berlin.
My first week in Berlin last year coincided with the Folsom festivities. It helped me realise this city truly was my home.
As someone of more of a “vanilla” disposition, my experience of the fetish scene largely arises from my previous job. I was an Android Developer for T101, the company that develops Recon: the world’s most notable fetish app for men. Working there I learned all sorts of wonderful things, tastes and kinks I didn’t even knew existed, and in general a lovely open-minded community that was overwhelmingly friendly.
This time last year I arrived in Berlin, having just completed the final week of my four years at T101, so naturally I popped down to the street fair to have a look (and to say hello to the guys). I remember crossing a road and seeing a barely-leather-clad man walk out of the bank with his rubber-clad pup friend on a leash. The door was being held open for them by an elderly white man, who smiled at them and said hello. I think that was the point I truly realised Berlin was my home.
A year has now passed, and it’s time for Folsom again, so I popped down to say hello to people, take a few pictures and soak in the atmosphere.
The term “Folsom” comes from the “Folsom Street Fair”, an annual leather/BDSM event on the street of that name in San Francisco which began in 1984 and now attracts visitors from all over the world. Folsom Europe is our continent’s answer to that party and, like its San Franciscan counterpart, is lauded as an incredible display of sexual oppenness and liberation.
In 2005, Folsom Europe got its first official welcome from City Hall, with the then-mayor, Klaus Wowereit, extending a formal welcome to the event. In a letter printed within the official programme, Wowereit stated:
“The international leather and fetish scene is meeting for the second time in Berlin for the Folsom Europe 2005 street festival. Welcome to Berlin!
Berlin is a tolerant and open metropolis. We are proud that people from different backgrounds and with different preferences feel comfortable here and party together… (Parties like Folsom Europe) allow the scene to present itself openly and break down skepticism and prejudice.”
As started in the article from Deutsche Welle which covered it at the time, it didn’t go down particularly well with Berlin’s Conservatives, who suggested it diminished the dignity of the mayoralty.
Not that this would matter to the partygoers. For them, Folsom is a proud expression of their sexuality and, far from being offended by the allegations of unseemly perversion and the revulsion from some more conservative types, they probably wore it as a badge of honour.
When people ask me what I like about Berlin, without a doubt the word “liberal” will come up in my answer. It is one of the handful of places in the world I feel safe holding hands with my husband. On gay rights, it was ahead of the curve, with a thriving (although not without difficulty) gay community existing in the city as early as the 1870s. I heavily recommend this book, which details Berlin’s pre-Third Reich queer history.
The Lonely Planet guide I bought before moving here summed it up in one line: Berlin is a city where you’ll struggle to find an itch you can’t scratch.
