Is Hairrison a charitable event?
Yes. We are organized as a non-profit organization and each year select several organizations to raise funds for, principally through our beverage partners program. This year’s beneficiaries include The AIDS Housing Alliance, The SF Gay Mens Chorus, and The Spitfire Softball Team. While our event is small compared to other, more established, gay fairs, we are proud to have the highest per capita giving of any gay fair in San Francisco and look to increase our level of giving every year.
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Why don’t you have a contest or a club like lots of other bear runs?
When we created Hairrison we were very careful to respect what had already been created for our community by Bears of San Francisco (BOSF) and Lazy Bear Weekend. We wanted our event to be a complimentary addition to the scene so we purposely chose late August as our original date since it was six months opposite IBR. We also chose not to have any kind of contest and we chose not to start up a club since these were already being well done by BOSF, which we support and many of our volunteers are actively involved with. We also did not focus on large-scale fundraising since Lazy Bear was one month before us and we view it as our community’s major fundraising drive of the year. Our principle fundraising project is Team Bear, our cycle club that particpates in the annual AIDS LifeCycle Ride from SF to LA. In 2008 the Team raised $150,000 for the SF AIDS Foundation.
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Why doesn’t Hairrison list itself on Bear411.com?
We feel strongly that the Bear Community should embrace diversity and openness, welcoming all who seek to participate in our community regardless of race or physical features. This openness also extends to freedom of expression and a regard for privacy rights as well. In light of ongoing, arbitrary restrictions to membership and invasive censorship by the owners of the site, which we feel are incompatible with our policies as an organization and our aspirations and beliefs for the community, we have declined to list ourselves on bear411.com at this time.
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How is Hairrison organized and how can I get involved?
Although PrideWorks employs a part-time Director as well as temporary, seasonal staff, the majority of the work is carried out by volunteers. We are always on the lookout for help, both on committees and for shifts during our events. If you want to find out more, go to our volunteer page.
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How many people attend?
Over 5,000 fun, hairy and hunky guys attend the fair. Many more than ten thousand attend our Bear Week events surrounding the fair.
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Why the move to Labor Day Weekend?
In 2006 we moved from mid-August to the first weekend in September (Labor Day Weekend) to accommodate a date change by Lazy Bear Weekend, which moved from from mid-July to the first weekend in August. Lazy Bear organizers decided to make their date change permanent, so we are continuing with the Labor Day Wekeend. We realize that this conflicts with travel get-away plans for some, but it makes travel much easier for others to come and visit San Francisco. Besides being a better travel window (especially form the East Coast), some of the other benefits include better weather and lower hotel rates. It also gives us a whole day off after the fair to recover!
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Why the move down to 12th Street?
In 2006, just a couple of weeks before our event, CalTrans announced that the Bay Bridge would be closed over the Labor Day Weekend as part of massive earthquake retrofit construction efforts on the bridge. In response to the prospect of traffic congestion resulting from the closure and the effect it could have on South-of-Market businesses, we were told by the City to move our fair away from 9th Street down to 11th. It was a scramble, but the move actually worked out just fine — although we were also forced to cancel our events at the Best Western Hotel which was terribly disappointing. Thanks to wonderful support from the community, the move ended up working out just fine. In fact, it worked out better for us in many ways. The new site proved to be easier on residents and businesses in the area and our bill for police and traffic management actually went down. This year we got notice ahead of time that the bridge would once again be closed, so we planned accordingly.
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What about the future location and date?
Our original vision was to one day extend from The Stud at 9th Street all the way down to the Eagle at 13th street. This remains our long range goal, but we’re just going to have to do it in reverse. Within the next decade, in time for the reopening of the new bridge, we hope to grow backwards to 9th Street and include the LoneStar Saloon and the Best Western Hotel (Camp Hairrison) once again. As for the date, we think that the benefits of Labor Day Weekend outweigh the drawbacks, so for now we’re sticking with it. Some have suggested moving it back later into September, and that is always a possible discussion to have. But not for this year.
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Why doesn’t Hairrison take money from bare-back video companies?
We believe in personal choice and the rights of human beings to express themselves. This includes men making personal choices about their bodies, their health and their sexuality. We also believe in free speech and free enterprise. However, we feel just as strongly that community organizations like ours have a responsibility to encourage a safe-sex culture in order to reduce and eliminate Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STDs). It is a complex issue, but we feel that accepting money from, or allowing our fair to be used in, the promotion of un-safe sex — even in video — is inconsistent with this value.
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