Hulu is gearing up to drop a DOCUMENTARY about the ICONIC ‘festival’ of sorts that was Freaknik! The series is titled Freaknik: The Wildest Party Never Told,”
“Freaknik: The Wildest Party Never Told” “recounts the rise and fall of a small Atlanta HBCU picnic that exploded into an influential street party and spotlighted ATL as a major cultural stage,” per Hulu’s description. “Can the magic of Freaknik be brought back 40 years later?
Executive producers include showrunner Geraldine L. Porras and director P Frank Williams, as well as Jermaine Dupri, Luther Campbell, Peter Bittenbender and Melissa Cooper for Mass Appeal, Eric Tomosunas for Swirl Films, Terry Ross and Alex Avant. Nikki Byles and Jay Allen are producers.
After kicking off in the mid-1980s as an annual picnic gathering for local HBCUs, Freaknik would go on to became an influential festival that defined Atlanta culture for nearly two decades. Every year, hundreds of thousands of students would take to the city for a weekend featuring dance contests, concerts, parties, sporting events, and a job fair.
By the late-1990s, Freaknik had sparked criticism from various groups, including the Atlanta Committee for Black College Spring Break, which called on the local community to no longer embrace the festival.
“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,″ the committee told the Associated Press in 1998.
Freaknik was conceived in March 1982 on Spelman College 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 of freaky and picnic. The name Freaknik was inspired by Le Freak by CHIC, a popular song and dance in the early 1980s.[7] First held in John A. White Park in April 1982, it was attended by at most 150 students, featuring a potluck and dancing. Two DJs were present: Nab (from New York state) and Daryl Baptiste Miller, who both were students of Morehouse College.
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. Atlanta University Center 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.[8][9][10][11][12]
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.[8] 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, Georgia.
The Associated Press 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 also said that “he will be tough and even sue organizers of any Freaknic-related activities who violate city guidelines. And so was the END of an ERA.
It will be very interesting to see what this DOCUMENTARY unlocks about the ICONIC event. And with JD and Uncle Luke involved, is is SURE to be INSIGHTFUL, coming from two ICONS that actually participated in the annual FETE.
No word on a release date, but we will definitely keep you informed!
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