For many years, especially during the late ’80s and early ’90s, the Freaknik was considered THE hot spot many heard about or was frequently visited by hundreds of thousands of black (and other) college students each April.
For many of those years, it lived up to its name. It was Freak-Nik! There was the wild partying in the street, the dancing, the taking of pictures, and of course, the freaking out. In fact, so many came in 1992 that Atlanta was nearly shut down. It became an event heard about around the world as it was the home of CNN news.
In an effort to tone down some of the Freaknik ways, there were numerous attempts to change the nature of the event. They tried to change the name (Black Cultural Something or Freedom Festival… and some others that didn’t quite work). There were even city-sponsored job fairs and event-hosted block parties. it was a good effort…
However……
What city organizers and others didn’t realize was that people weren’t coming to Freaknik to look for work or even to take on a political agenda. They came for a wild party. It was as simple as that. Much like the New Orleans Mardi-Gras (an event that celebrates going wild every year), people came to get away from school or work and have a good time.
But things changed… drastically. Shortly after the Atlanta Olympics… the event went downhill. Atlanta political figures wanted to put an end to Freaknik. So they set up ways to make the event frustrating. Roadblocks throughout the city made traffic a huge mess. He couldn’t do anything or go anywhere without being in traffic for hours.
Then other events began to appear. The Black College Reunion in Daytona and the Kappa Beach party in Galveston, Texas, were now drawing many of Atlanta Freaknik’s attendees. The 1999 Freaknik was considered the worst of all and put the last nail in the coffin.
Although Freaknik is long gone, there are other events that have even surpassed the 250,000+ numbers that participated in this spring break event each year. In the 90s there were only 3 or 4 events that flourished during this period. However, today we have close to 50 events that give that same party atmosphere.
Even with that being said, if you ask someone 30 and over what was always the most popular event they had to attend during your college years, FREAKNIK will always still be #1.