What Ever Happened To Freaknik?
IS THE ATLANTA FREAKNIK OVER?
For many years, especially during the late 80's and early 90's, the Freaknik was considered THE hot spot that many either heard about or was frequently visited to by the hundreds of thousands of black college students (and others) every April.
For many of those years, it lived up to it's name. It was Freak-Nik!!! There were the wild parties on the street, the dancing, the picture taking and of course the freaking.
In fact so many came in 1992, Atlanta was almost shut down. It became an event that heard about through out the world as it was the home of CNN news.
In an effort to tone down some of 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 a few others that didn't quite work out). There were even city sponsored job fairs and event organized block parties. It was a good effort.....
However......
What the city organizers and others failed to realize was that people didn't come to Freaknik to look for jobs or even 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 getting wild every year) People came to get away from school or work and have a great time.
But things have changed... drastically. Soon after the Olympics in Atlanta....the event went down hill. The political figures in Atlanta wanted to call a halt to Freaknik. So they established ways to make the event frustrating. Road blocks through out the city made traffic a huge mess. You could not do anything or go anywhere without staying in traffic for hours.
Then other events started to pop up. The Black College Reunion in Daytona and the Kappa Beach party in Galveston, Texas were now grabbing many of the Atlanta Freaknik participants. The 1999 Freaknik was considered the worst of all. It was a Freak-Not. Plenty of the fellas showed up ready to take pictures... but many of the ladies were no where to be found. Many were so disappointed that they have refused to ever come back again.
Is Freaknic over?
Well, I doubt it.....
Because of the name and it's past history, there will still be a significant amount of people who will come just to see if they can witness part of the atmosphere that once made the Freaknic live up to it's name. The clubs and college parties will have a little more activity than normal....but whether it will even be half of the event it once was....
well...
your guess is as good as mine.
For many years, especially during the late 80's and early 90's, the Freaknik was considered THE hot spot that many either heard about or was frequently visited to by the hundreds of thousands of black college students (and others) every April.
For many of those years, it lived up to it's name. It was Freak-Nik!!! There were the wild parties on the street, the dancing, the picture taking and of course the freaking.
In fact so many came in 1992, Atlanta was almost shut down. It became an event that heard about through out the world as it was the home of CNN news.
In an effort to tone down some of 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 a few others that didn't quite work out). There were even city sponsored job fairs and event organized block parties. It was a good effort.....
However......
What the city organizers and others failed to realize was that people didn't come to Freaknik to look for jobs or even 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 getting wild every year) People came to get away from school or work and have a great time.
But things have changed... drastically. Soon after the Olympics in Atlanta....the event went down hill. The political figures in Atlanta wanted to call a halt to Freaknik. So they established ways to make the event frustrating. Road blocks through out the city made traffic a huge mess. You could not do anything or go anywhere without staying in traffic for hours.
Then other events started to pop up. The Black College Reunion in Daytona and the Kappa Beach party in Galveston, Texas were now grabbing many of the Atlanta Freaknik participants. The 1999 Freaknik was considered the worst of all. It was a Freak-Not. Plenty of the fellas showed up ready to take pictures... but many of the ladies were no where to be found. Many were so disappointed that they have refused to ever come back again.
Is Freaknic over?
Well, I doubt it.....
Because of the name and it's past history, there will still be a significant amount of people who will come just to see if they can witness part of the atmosphere that once made the Freaknic live up to it's name. The clubs and college parties will have a little more activity than normal....but whether it will even be half of the event it once was....
well...
your guess is as good as mine.