The Castro Street Fair (www.castrostreetfair.org) is MUCH MORE than a bit tamer than Folsom Street Fair (www.folsomstreetfair.org). Booths for vendors and community organizations, lots of food stands, live music, overflowing bars, and festivities in the streets (blocked off from traffic).

Folsom has expanded to welcome and embrace the entire community of alternative folks here and those visiting...you will find all shapes, sizes, and genders of tattooed, pierced, and fetishists and those who appreciate them out in full-force, in addition to the leather community. Our notoriously fickle summer weather could show you sunny temps in the 90s (ever seen a "farmers" tan on a chaps wearer?) to fog and light drizzle in the low 60s. Either way it is very entertaining, as long as you have a very open mind.

The night before the Castro Street Fair (this year, Sat. Oct. 2), the streets are already closed to traffic and there is much festivity outside a la "Pink Saturday," the night before the Gay Pride Parade (June).