Freaknik (; originally Freaknic) is an annual spring break festival in

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...

, Georgia. It is primarily attended by students from

historically black colleges and universities Historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) are institutions of higher education in the United States that were established before the Civil Rights Act of 1964 with the intention of primarily serving the African-American community. ...

. It began in 1983 as a small picnic in a public park near the

Atlanta University Center The Atlanta University Center Consortium (AUC Consortium) is the oldest and largest contiguous consortium of African-American higher education institutions in the United States. The center consists of four historically black colleges and universi ...

sponsored by the D.C. Metro Club for students who could not afford to return home for spring break. It continued as an annual event held during the third weekend in April. The event increased in size and popularity in the 1990s, incorporating dance contests, concerts, parties, a basketball tournament, rap sessions, a

film festival A film festival is an organized, extended presentation of films in one or more cinemas or screening venues, usually in a single city or region. Increasingly, film festivals show some films outdoors. Films may be of recent date and, depending upon ...

and a

job fair A job fair, also commonly referred to as a job expo or career fair or career expo, is an event in which employers, recruiters, and schools give information to potential employees. Job seekers attend job fairs to speak face-to-face with potential e ...

. The ''

'' magazine called it Atlanta's most infamous street party. In 1999, actions by the police and elected officials caused celebration of Freaknik to cease. A revamped version returned for one day on June 22, 2019 as "FreakNik Atlanta '19 - The Festival" with a concert at Cellairis Amphitheatre at Lakewood. As of 2020, it was set to move forward as a three-day event centered around artists performing. Originally "Freaknic," the name of the event is a

portmanteau A portmanteau word, or portmanteau (, ) is a blend of words

History

Freaknik was conceived in March 1982 on

Spelman College Spelman College is a private, historically black, women's liberal arts college in Atlanta, Georgia. It is part of the Atlanta University Center academic consortium in Atlanta. Founded in 1881 as the Atlanta Baptist Female Seminary, Spelman re ...

in a DC Metro Club meeting headed by then president Schuyla Goodson. It was sponsored by the Club, which was composed of students from Washington, D.C., Maryland, and Virginia. The DC Metro Club intended for it to be challenge to the California Club for the largest end-of-the-school-year party. Goodson invented the name Freaknik (then spelled "Freaknic") as a

portmanteau A portmanteau word, or portmanteau (, ) is a blend of wordsLe Freak by CHIC, a popular song and dance in the early 1980s. First held in John A. White Park in April 1982, it was attended by at most 150 students, featuring a

potluck A potluck is a communal gathering where each guest or group contributes a different, often homemade, dish of food to be shared. Other names for a "potluck" include: potluck dinner, pitch-in, shared lunch, spread, faith supper, carry-in dinner, ...

and dancing. Two

DJs A disc jockey, more commonly abbreviated as DJ, is a person who plays recorded music for an audience. Types of DJs include radio DJs (who host programs on music radio stations), club DJs (who work at a nightclub or music festival), mobile D ...

were present: Nab (from New York state) and Daryl Baptiste Miller, who both were students of

Morehouse College , mottoeng = And there was light (literal translation of Latin itself translated from Hebrew: "And light was made") , type = Private historically black men's liberal arts college , academic_affiliations ...

. In 1988, Spelman College President Johnnetta B. Cole banned the DC Metro Club from involvement with Freaknic for school liability reasons. With no chartered student organization presiding over the event, Daryl Baptiste Miller was asked by the DC Metro Club to promote it. Daryl Baptiste Miller had work as an independent national promoter and advance for Casual Cal, Cedric Walker, Don King, Uncle Jams Army, Lakers Michael Cooper, WAOK Road Shows, Al Haymond Presents and Fantasy Entertainment ( the main party promoter of the AUC at the time) made the event epic. The event grew from 15,000 to over 300,000 in five years. This event would take place at the then 33-acre Lakewood Fairgrounds and would have 60 thousand people in attendance. In 1993 two non HBCU promoters Ronn Greene and Diya Nabawi would be the first to trademark the name, spelled officially as "Freaknik" (ending with a "k"). This was a hijacking of the name and was a insult to the dignity of a then positive student events spirit and wholesome intent of the event. In 1993 Kristina Copeland, a woman from Washington, D.C. and Ronn Greene, would produce the second event held at Lakewood Fairgrounds. They invited the provocative artist Luke Campbell and the nature of the event took a turn to being a very undignified event. Non-HBCU people began incorporating nudity and wild partying.

students promoted Freaknic as a non-provocative events to try to distinguish it from the once wholesome event it started as. Traffic became unmanageable during Freaknik as the event became popular to non HBCU and college students in general. There were reports of violence, looting and sexual assault. The event became open to the general public, and people from the United States, Canada, the Caribbean and Europe came to participate in it. In 1990, it was attended by 300,000, many of whom did not plan to attend Freaknic, compared to the previous year's 80,000. In 1991, up to 350,000 people attended it. As Freaknik grew, the attitudes toward it of local homeowners and business owners became negative. It was challenged by Atlanta businesses, neighborhood associations, business owners and community leaders. Under pressure, Atlanta Mayor Bill Campbell cracked down on Freaknik in 1996. Large numbers of Atlanta police made it difficult to party in Freaknik or commit crimes. Roadblocks were placed at freeway exits that led to Atlanta. After city leaders took these measures to curtail Freaknic's accessibility, its popularity faded. The event moved east from Atlanta to Memorial Drive in

DeKalb County DeKalb County may refer to one of several counties in the United States, all of which were named for Baron Johan DeKalb: * DeKalb County, Alabama * DeKalb County, Georgia * DeKalb County, Illinois * DeKalb County, Indiana * DeKalb County, Missouri ...

, Georgia. The Associated Pres
reported on May 13, 1998
that the Atlanta Committee for Black College Spring Break should no longer welcome Freaknik. "We cannot support events that bring lewd activities, sexual assaults, violence against women and public safety concerns—firetrucks not being able to reach victims, and ambulances not being able to reach hospitals in a timely manner," said committee chairman George Hawthorne. By 1999, the celebration of the festival in DeKalb County died down due to heightened police security. In April 2010, Atlanta officials said: "there are no permitted Freaknic-related events inside the city limits." Atlanta Mayor

Kasim Reed Mohammed Kasim Reed (born June 10, 1969) is an American lawyer and politician who served as the 59th mayor of Atlanta, Georgia's state capital and largest city, from 2010 to 2018. A Democrat, Reed was a member of the Georgia House of Represen ...

also said that "he will be tough and even sue organizers of any Freaknic-related activities who violate city guidelines." After a 20-year hiatus, the last official Freaknik being in 1999, Atlanta-based promotion company After 9 Partners and Carlos Neal contracted

Luther Campbell Luther Roderick Campbell (born December 22, 1960), also known as Luke Skyywalker, Uncle Luke and simply Luke, is an American rapper, promoter, record executive, actor, and former leader of the rap group 2 Live Crew. He also starred in a short- ...

, Juvenile, Trina and others to spearheaded the return of a revamped Freaknik in June 2019. The Summer 2019 Freaknik featured hip-hop and R&B music artists performing at the

Cellairis Amphitheatre The Cellairis Amphitheatre at Lakewood is a concert venue located in Atlanta, which opened in 1989. The amphitheatre seats 18,920 (7,000 seated; 12,000 on the lawn). It was designed to offer a state-of-the-art musical experience for both music fa ...

. Other activities were available throughout Atlanta, such as a community service event. Many of the 20,000+ attendees were adults who participated in the official Freakniks of the 80s and 90s.

In culture

Williams Street Studios produced a one-hour special spoof titled '' Freaknik: The Musical'' based on the popular festival. The show aired on television network

Adult Swim Adult Swim (AS; stylized as

dult swim Dult is a village in Batala in Gurdaspur district of Punjab State, India. It is located from sub district headquarter, from district headquarter and from Sri Hargobindpur. The village is administrated by Sarpanch an elected representati ...

and often abbreviated as s is an American adult-oriented night-time cable television Television channel, channel that shares channel space with the basic cable network Cartoon Network and is programme ...

on March 7, 2010. A season one episode of ''

True Life ''True Life'' is an American documentary television series that aired on MTV from March 31, 1998 to June 21, 2017. Each episode follows a particular topic, such as heroin addiction as in the first episode – "Fatal Dose". The show is created by ...

'' followed college students during 1998's Freaknik. A season six episode of '' Sister, Sister'' chronicled Tia and Tamera's trip from Michigan to Atlanta toward Freaknik with their college friends. In his mixtape "

STN MTN / Kauai ''STN MTN / Kauai'' is the combined release of the seventh mixtape and second extended play (EP) by American recording artist Childish Gambino. The ''STN MTN'' mixtape was released on October 2, 2014 as a free download from DatPiff, while the ''Kau ...

Childish Gambino Donald McKinley Glover Jr. (; born September 25, 1983), also known by his stage name Childish Gambino (), is an American entertainer, writer, director, and producer. After working in Derrick Comedy while studying at New York University, Glove ...

opens by saying that he had a dream that he ran Atlanta, and among other things, he would bring back Freaknik. On "Hair Day", the eleventh episode of season six of the

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster ** Disney–ABC Television ...

series ''

Black-ish ''Black-ish'' (stylized as black·''ish'', `black·''ish'', and black''ish'') is an American sitcom television series created by Kenya Barris. It aired on ABC from September 24, 2014, to April 19, 2022, running for eight seasons. ''Black-ish'' ...

'', Dre reveals to his son Jack that as a younger man he was beaten in a dance-off by a someone who brought his own whistle to the party, which raised the ire of his oldest son, Junior, who insisted Dre had told him "What happens at Freaknik stays at Freaknik." Freaknik is referenced in many rap songs from the 1990s and early 2000s.

References

{{Hip hop festival Festivals in Atlanta African-American festivals Post–civil rights era in African-American history History of Atlanta Hip hop music festivals in the United States Music festivals established in 1983 1983 establishments in Georgia (U.S. state) Hip hop dance festivals African-American film festivals

In culture

See also

References