The CMC Carnival was an annual event staged by San Francisco’s California Motor Club, one of the city’s pioneering leather motorcycle clubs, and stood among the most anticipated gatherings on the leather calendar through the late 1970s. Jack Fritscher covered the Carnival in Drummer magazine, capturing its costumes, contests, and community spirit in real time, and later revisited the event in his retrospective history Gay San Francisco: Eyewitness Drummer. The Carnival’s South of Market setting and leather-community roots directly foreshadow the Folsom Street Fair, which grew out of the same neighborhood and social scene less than a decade later.

Gay San Francisco: Eyewitness Drummer
“CMC Carnival: The World’s Best Annual Gay Party“

Drummer No 026 Jan 1979
“CMC CARNIVAL 1978: SEAMAN’S SEMEN’S END“