Dore Alley (Up Your Alley)

San Francisco's leather community takes over its home turf every July for Up Your Alley, known to almost everyone as Dore Alley. The fair runs 11am to 6pm on the last Sunday of July, on Folsom Street between 9th and 10th plus Dore Alley itself, the short SoMa street that gives the day its name.

Entry is free with a suggested cash donation at the gates, which funds the community grants handed out by Folsom Street, the nonprofit that also produces September's Folsom Street Fair. Expect a dense, high-energy block: vendors selling leather and gear, DJ stages, kink demonstrations, and community health tables. The crowd runs 10,000 to 15,000, leans local and gay-male, and the space is adults-only and kink-positive by design.

The fair caps a full week of parties, from midweek kickoff nights through the marquee Friday and Saturday dance floors, an official tea dance as the gates close on Sunday, and a recovery party in the Castro on Monday. The surrounding SoMa leather bars stay busy all weekend.

First held on Ringold Street in 1985 and settled into its current footprint in 1987, Dore is the smaller, grittier sibling of Folsom, and many regulars prefer it for exactly that reason.