Joey's Guide to: Folsom San Francisco 2019
Parties & Venues
Saturday 9/28 1pm - 6pm
Big Muscle @ DNA Lounge
Party: Big Muscle is hosted by bigmuscle.com with all proceeds benefiting PRC. It’s not quite a circuit party, but it’s a good warm-up for the rest of the weekend’s festivities.
Attire: A proper leather or nylon harness up top, paired with shorts of your choice, with boots, high tops, or runners.
Venue: DNA Lounge is actually one of my favorite venues in SF, best known for hosting the near-weekly Bootie mashup parties that attracts a mixed (straight and LGBT) crowd. It’s a large (for SF) venue with 4 or 5 separate areas. What pushes it over the top for me is the attached DNA Pizza cafe- there’s a door just inside the main club entrance connection the cafe and the club, and sometimes (depending on the event) security will let you pass back and forth if you have a stamp/wristband.
Saturday 9/28 10pm - 4am
Pervert @ Mezzanine SF
San Francisco’s local XOXO Entertainment partners with Matinée Group to bring Pervert, Circuit Festival Barcelona’s leather-themed circuit party, to Folsom.
FYI, XOXO also hosts the Forever Tel Aviv circuit party during San Francisco Pride weekend.
Sunday 9/29 4am - 10am
Aftershock @ City Nights
Party: Aftershock is the circuit party of Folsom. The 4am start suggests it’s an after-hours but it doesn’t have an after-hours vibe at all. Unlike most events where you turn up an hour or three after they open, people commonly come straight from another party to Aftershock and start lining up to get in before they open the doors, meaning the party starts filling up right from the get-go.
TIP:
Get to Aftershock at least 30-45 minutes early if you want to be one of the first ones inside, or else head back home to take a short breather get to Aftershock about 45 minutes after they open.
Not heading to any other parties that night? Go to bed early, sleep for a few hours, then wake up for Aftershock.
Attire: Standard circuit party attire, with some kind of harness.
Venue: City Nights is a venue liked by many, though for me it’s a bit mixed. Near the entrance there is a great lobby area to chill with a large bar that usually doesn’t get very busy. The main dance floor is on the smaller side, with a stage-like upper balcony that leads to the lobby. There’s also additional space upstairs that’s not big enough to be a dance floor but is usually used to cool off and relax. And you’ll need to cool off, as the AC isn’t usually that great here. Lastly, coat check is more often than not pretty slow here, causing long lines both to drop off or retrieve items.