Talk of the Town

By Rawbreed™

April 14, 2008 10:36 AM | Link to this

The best moments in my life happened at freaknik…. it was a beautiful thing! (*tear *tear)

By Shannon

April 14, 2008 10:57 AM | Link to this

Yep … a friend of mine got married the Saturday during Freaknik in 1994 and I was almost late (and several people actually were late) to the wedding because of the horrible traffic jams they had.

I also remember in 1995, I worked down in Buckhead off of Piedmont Road and because of all of the traffic jams in 1994 we closed early at 3 o’clock, but it was still after 6 o’clock by the time I got home.

By D Dub of the ATL

April 14, 2008 11:48 AM | Link to this

ahhh… good old Freaknik… I think I learned how to manuver cars through small spaces those couple of years I was old enough to go out… Gas was only $1.29… man, those were some good times before the actual freaks showed up.

By bob

April 14, 2008 11:49 AM | Link to this

Good riddence. We have enough traffic and drunk drivers after 2 AM already.

By james

April 14, 2008 11:50 AM | Link to this

i’m about to cry

This is why Atlanta is the mecca now, because of Freaknik! Please bring Freaknik back!

By who cares

April 14, 2008 11:51 AM | Link to this

What is the point in bringing this up again? Atlanta needs a new newspaper. If you can’t think of anything else to say go pull up something racist….that’s the way to keep controversy going…

By Brian

April 14, 2008 11:52 AM | Link to this

Never made any sense to me. Aimlessly drive around a city for three days. Unfortunately it wasn’t just college students. It also brought the criminals as it does in Daytona and the other locales.

By Jake from Acworth

April 14, 2008 11:54 AM | Link to this

I hated Freaknic then and I still hate it now. Like it or not Freaknic helped make Atlanta into the “Hip-Hop” capitol of America. Now because of it we a city full of thugs and wanna-be gangsters that run around in cars with 36 inch rims but yet live in public housing.

By FREAKNIK4EVER

April 14, 2008 11:55 AM | Link to this

Best times ever for the city. I enjoyed getting off work early to cruise down peachtree and enjoy the “sights”. I too feel your pain Rawbreed (SOB,SOB, SOMEONE HAND ME MY CRYIN TOWEL!!!)

By David Lee

April 14, 2008 11:57 AM | Link to this

Open sex on the hood of a car while others watched and filmed. You can say I enjoyed the FREAK in Freaknik.

By Robert

April 14, 2008 11:59 AM | Link to this

Once while stuck in traffic, one of the “innocent college students” who just happens to have been black looked over at the car we were in and said, “I have a gun, y’all scared of me?”

If I had a gun…

I for one am VERY glad THUG-nik is gone. May it never show its ugly head again. Criminals.

By Charles

April 14, 2008 12:00 PM | Link to this

I’m glad that some other place now has the “opportunity” to host it.

By TastyPeach

April 14, 2008 12:04 PM | Link to this

Ahhhhh that was my early twenties and the REAL 112 days!! Dang I miss Atlanta back in those days. Yup I was one of them clogging traffic and getting my freaknic on lol. Sorry residents but boy was the memories worth it. Im now living in Dc and all grown up. How about a freaknic reunion?

By td

April 14, 2008 12:04 PM | Link to this

My fondest memory was when I heard that Freaknik, the yearly traffic, litter and behavior disaster, had been canceled, and it would no longer be held in Atlanta. Good riddance to that train wreck of an event.

By richard

April 14, 2008 12:04 PM | Link to this

I never understood why they chose Atlanta. Granted, it has a strong black history but a site for spring break? why not the beach or somewhere fun?

Sitting in traffic is torture for most Atlanta people but these kids found it fun… to each his own. In their defense, kids in Panama City sit in traffic on Thomas Drive for hours too - guess I’m just old now!

By Ron

April 14, 2008 12:08 PM | Link to this

Boy was this the worst idea ever. It is pretty sad that certain “people” always tend to get out of control.

By BVD

April 14, 2008 12:08 PM | Link to this

I only went one year. It was the best time I had ever had. All the males I encountered were nice. Gentlemen. The traffic was terrible. I wish there would have been some way to deal with it … but the traffic here is awful anyway. Freaknik could have been tweaked if Atlanta wanted it here. Clearly they didn’t.

By Patrice

April 14, 2008 12:08 PM | Link to this

I attended Freaknik up until 1995 and it was the bomb being able to meet people from other schools and different states but after 1995 it wasnt the same with all the streets being blocked off.

By justathought

April 14, 2008 12:09 PM | Link to this

Not at all sad to see it go, I think this day in age it is very inapropriate to have any sort of gathering that just calls upon one race. Two steps forward ten steps back. Glad to see it go.

By Q-Ball

April 14, 2008 12:13 PM | Link to this

At first it was great when there was just young college students from the South East USA hanging out, partying, networking, etc. A great time!!!

Then you had people who were not even college students, gang memebers or in their 30’s and 40’s coming down and then the fights, shootings, and rapes began.

By Nickee

April 14, 2008 12:24 PM | Link to this

FreakNic was a lot of fun..so why did they cancel it? Thats where you really wanted to go for Spring Break back in the day! Cause i got my freak on 4 FreakNik…so bring it back..PLEASE

By joeybagodoghnuts

April 14, 2008 12:24 PM | Link to this

One of the most dangerous and riot like times in the history of the city. I was stuck downtown on the connector and people were grilling food on the interstate and urinating in front of our car. I have never seen people behave like that and I hope to never see that stuff ever again.

By Rudy

April 14, 2008 12:27 PM | Link to this

What an incredible debacle! For the city to have allowed Freaknik to go on as long as it did is inexcuseable. It will be a black eye on Atlanta for many years to come.

By no more

April 14, 2008 12:28 PM | Link to this

Glad to see it’s gone.

By sly

April 14, 2008 12:35 PM | Link to this

miss the eye candy….

By MocaMarc

April 14, 2008 12:35 PM | Link to this

What bothered me was the fallout after 1994, when everything aligned and Atlanta was effectively shut down for the weekend. The public outcry caused by the gridlock angered blacks who charged racism. All everyone had to do was park the cars and everything would have been fine. But Freaknik became all about cars and had to be stopped.

And I got stuck on Monroe Drive while on my way for a date.

By Marlon Parker

April 14, 2008 12:35 PM | Link to this

A world renowned party that brought more money than maheim. Shirley, (no she’s on her way out)the next mayor of ATL has to bring it back!

By FarLeftLoons

April 14, 2008 12:38 PM | Link to this

Glad it’s over. Just a bunch of gangster rapper wannabes. MLK, Jr would be SO proud of those losers, I’m sure.

By diddy

April 14, 2008 12:38 PM | Link to this

Man I miss Freaknik. Atlanta has really fallen off since ‘96.

By The Truth

April 14, 2008 12:39 PM | Link to this

Freak-nic was great until the ignorant element showed up. When it was agathering of college-aged youth, most of them attending college, the atmosphere was fun. Once the thug element showed up - everything was ruined. City organizers also tried to hard to make money off of it, versus keeping most events free to the public and letting the merchants, restaurants, and hotels reap the benefits of the large crowds.

Finally, people forget that the year Freak-nic really got out of hand, the police had the “blue flu” because they wanted better pay from Campbell and they gave a lax policing effort. I witnessed police ignoring open drug use, lewdness, and intoxication. With no crowd control, you get an out-of-control crowd. No police + ignorant element = no more Freak-nik.

By Jeff

April 14, 2008 12:41 PM | Link to this

Can we bring back Comdex? the reason they left atlanta was because of the traffic nightmare Freaknic created.

By DH

April 14, 2008 12:41 PM | Link to this

That event did more to reinforce the negative Black stereotype within the White community than anything else in recent memory. On a personal note, I was involved in a 3 car accident on I-285 when a car overloaded with “Freaks”, including some who were sitting on top of the car, decided to stop in the middle lane, causing the car beside me to swerve into me to miss them. The “Freaks” sped off, leaving me and the other driver with severe auto damage.

By Trell

April 14, 2008 12:42 PM | Link to this

Why are people complaining about the traffic that took place? You knew it was coming, you should have planned accordingly. I got caught on 85N because they closed 3 lanes down. I knew about it and I was dumb enough to get caught in it. I had noone to blame but myself.

The problems with freaknik were caused more by the local people with bad intentions not the college students.

I do wish they had worked more with the city. You could have had venues all over Atlanta and made everyone happy. There wouldn’t have been a shortage of acts to perform or space force people to get together. Ex. Chastin Park, Stone Mountain, etc. It could have been something amazing.

By tfitzpat

April 14, 2008 12:44 PM | Link to this

The best years for me were 93-97. I would take vacation during that week because I would have so much family and friends visit from other places during Freknik weekend. After 97, it went downhill, and I was beginning to get “too old” to Freakink. Overall, it was FUN while it lasted.

By 84Hondarida

April 14, 2008 12:45 PM | Link to this

I was at MBC during freaknik’s heyday and the weekend started around 12-ish Friday when everyone was like screw class, it’s going down (of course I always had a @#^&!@ test 3pm Friday). I don’t know how many bottles and bags were consumed those weekends but I should still be hungover to this day. Todays college kids REALLY missed out on an experience. Daytona, Galveston and Miami are cool but freaknik was *the true definition of partying.

By Ghost

April 14, 2008 12:48 PM | Link to this

The one time I came down here for freaknik was in 1995. We had a GREAT time, but the traffic was HORRIBLE!!

Now that I live here, I’d hate to even be near the city should something like that take place again.

By FreakNik Alum

April 14, 2008 12:51 PM | Link to this

Atlanta has the largest concentration of Black college graduates than any other city in the United States…Although Atlanta can celebrate its proud heritage and one of its oldest mottos “A city to busy to hate,” There is no mistake as a proud alumnus of an HBCU myself along with many of my friends now make the “A” our home because of the Freaknik years from ‘90-‘93… What’s sad is that this article didn’t show Freaknik in any other light other than an event that ran its course and one that was taken over by crime. If we are going to shut down an event because of traffic, then we need to shut down downtown Atlanta every weekend.
To see a 50 year-old brother at Freaknik is no different than seeing that same brother at his college’s homecoming classic. We need to get back to defining what’s important to us and what we value in our traditions and not letting the AJC or any other media define our traditions. When we go to any HBCU classic, there is going to be a certain element of our population that’s going to be there for something more than commraderie of fellowshipping with brothers and sisters of the HBCU family unit. We can’t let them grab the headlines as well. To the founders of Freaknik, I appluad you for starting the movement. It was definitely my pleasure to FREAK-DA-NIK

By Chris

April 14, 2008 12:52 PM | Link to this

I remember Freaknik, everybody got out of town before hand, if not, you locked your doors and stayed inside. Too much looting, sex, and danger to venture outside. Thank God it’s gone!

By OK with it

April 14, 2008 1:05 PM | Link to this

I’m ok with freaknik coming back… just put it down in Clayton County where it belongs.

By GA all day

April 14, 2008 1:07 PM | Link to this

I was born in 83 so Freakinik was the standard of my childhood. Though I was a youngin, I loved going to South DeKalb mall and hanging out the whole weekend, anticipating the day I would be in college and could REALLY enjoy the fun. Then “they” killed all of the fun like they do anything else “we” enjoy. Maybe if Freaknik was Music Midtown, it would still be around. It’s the same if you ask me.

By kalen

April 14, 2008 1:07 PM | Link to this

“Ron” your “people” get out of control too…can you recal woodstock? Racist pig

By eljewell

April 14, 2008 1:07 PM | Link to this

OMG was we that bad. Wink Wink.

By A'Nesthesia

April 14, 2008 1:08 PM | Link to this

I have a 12 year old conceived during Freaknik 1995 - David Lee, are you my babydaddy?

By Brnbamagirl

April 14, 2008 1:08 PM | Link to this

Freaknik 1994 was the best. My friends and I had a great time. Boy do I miss my college years

By Dave

April 14, 2008 1:10 PM | Link to this

All I remember was some bunch of idiot kids at Georgia State complaining about how arresting men who were in public waving their penises at women was “racist.”

By john

April 14, 2008 1:10 PM | Link to this

Good Riddence!!!!

By davey

April 14, 2008 1:12 PM | Link to this

All those who took part in Freaknik took pride in all the chaos that was caused by the event. Who in their right minds would want to come to Atlanta for spring break anyway.

By BAD DOG

April 14, 2008 1:13 PM | Link to this

I had fun back then but now this young crowd wouldn’t know how to have fun or handle it like that without some gun play in the mix Too many young knuckle heads out there now

By TI

April 14, 2008 1:13 PM | Link to this

I remember watching the 10 o clock news while a helicopter was hovering over Peachtree St. filming live while some girls were being attacked by a bunch of guys inside a van. No police were around. It was like watching the discovery channel as tigers come out of the grass for the kill in Africa.

By Peter

April 14, 2008 1:14 PM | Link to this

I never saw more lack of respect to other folks in ANY COMMUNITY then when Freaknik was in town.

The partiers were so obnoxius, it wasc like they had NO feelings or thoughts for anyone but themselves.

I Buckhead partiers stopped their cars on Peachtree street, at Pharr Road got out and created a traffic jam that was totally out of line.

The behavior of the folks that came to town really showed how poorly the BLACK community can handle themselves.

AS a white guy with best friends that are black for 20 plus years, I was embarrassed for the Black community, and so were my Black friends.

I think it is sad that the organizers didn’t have a place for the folks to go, instead of having these folks party all over town in such a disruptive way !

By Rocket20

April 14, 2008 1:15 PM | Link to this

Why could’nt we have RedNeckNic?

By Jess

April 14, 2008 1:15 PM | Link to this

Most of those pictures posted show happy, young college students cutting loose and having a good time. Too bad that’s not how it was. My prom had to be rescheduled last minute because of this mess - people were really hurt during this madness, why would anyone miss it? If it were a real festival, it would have been cool. But a bunch of idiots driving around for no reason? Nuts…

By BAD DOG

April 14, 2008 1:18 PM | Link to this

funny how Atlanta can host the Olympics without traffic mess but can’t control it when its something Black Folks want to do like Freaknic, NBA Allstar Game anything else is a go for White Folk

By JB

April 14, 2008 1:19 PM | Link to this

I wonder if Freaknik was a white event, would it still be around??

hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

By ByGone

April 14, 2008 1:20 PM | Link to this

AJC are you running out of stories to report? Freaknik is in the past so let’s let it stay there. Pleasssssee don’t bring it back. Atlanta has enough issus to deal with already. Maybe it wouldn’t have been taken away if people had some home training. It’s too much mayhem and we have enough of that already.

By Decatur Joe

April 14, 2008 1:25 PM | Link to this

Watch out native Atlantans. The out of towners (outside of the city limit) destroyed freaknik, are trying to destroy the dogwood festival, keep people out of piedmont park, and turn Atlanta into where ever they are from. Don’t let them take all of our tradition. Soon we won’t be able to remember what peach cobbler taste like.

By mackie

April 14, 2008 1:26 PM | Link to this

Someone told me that Freaknik was invented by the white man to lure the black man into Atlanta in hopes of making them think ‘white’.

By HW

April 14, 2008 1:32 PM | Link to this

I lived in an apartment building right across the street from Piedmont Park during the early nineties. My spot was always a prime freaknik gathering place for my friends (local and out of towners). Despite all the crowds and bad traffic and the bad name freaknik ultimately got ….it still brings back the fond memories that I had during my time in Atlanta ! As a sidebar I also experienced the riots in VA beach (circa 1989) while a college student. Its unfortunate that these events that start out with good intentions grow out of hand and end on such a bad note !

By Dan

April 14, 2008 1:37 PM | Link to this

I never understood the whole thing. Sitting in traffic is a fun vacation? Why not actually go somewhere and do something - this city has a lot of options. Oh right, a lot of those activities require money. If those folks so enjoy sitting in traffic I suggest they get a job. Then they can sit in traffic five days a week just like everybody else.

By RB

April 14, 2008 1:38 PM | Link to this

If the City of Atlanta would put the effort and money forward to bring Freaknik back as an organized event, the revenues would benefit the city. The big problem is that even with organization, young men and women often fail to follow the “rules”. The efforts of the City would not be enough to control the independent minds of young, intoxicated individuals.

By Reg

April 14, 2008 1:38 PM | Link to this

Freaknik? Good Riddance!!!. It may have been a good idea to begin with, but it morphed into something ‘not good’.

By Atlanta Lover

April 14, 2008 1:42 PM | Link to this

I remember Freaknik very well. I was staying at Georgia Baptist Hospital with a sick friend one year and we watched it out the window. Half naked girls were lying on top of converibles drinking and acting in ways that their parents would never approve.

But do you know what? I liked it. I was a middle aged white school teacher and I enjoyed watching the parade of decadance and freedom to be Americans that Freaknik represented. I did not mind the traffic hassles. I did not mind the crowds. I was really angry the year a guy stopped in Capitol Homes to use the pay phone and ended up robbed and murdered. That was an embarrassment to our city just like when a hate crime happened in Little 5.

Freaknik is America at its finest—-a free country where people can play for a couple days and then go back to being serious, productive human beings gain. They were not all college students either. Some of the high schools, noticeably Southside felt almost hollow on Freaknik Friday. New Orleans simply closes the schools for Mardi Gras. They don’t fight it. They roll with it.

Freaknik was the closest thing to Mardi Gras to hit Atlanta—-a party for the sake of having a party. And the City Government did not know what to do with it. One year they welcomed Freaknik and provided job fairs and other wholesome activities to complement it. The next year Bill Campbell virtually banned it and the APD arrested every Freaknikker they could lay their hands on. That was a year of Atlanta’s shame.

Freaknik never hurt anybody. It was just a big two day party. Then it went away. The students left on Sunday with their wallets thinner, but the bars, hotels and restaurants had theirs thicker. Freaknik was good for the economy.

Atlanta is such a serious place. People dedicatedly fight for their causes. They go to work. They get an education and buy an expensive house that they have to work harder for to keep. They even party with great seriousness. They don’t have a laid back attitude. Everything has to be so clean and proper and modern. Who remembers when the Fox Theater was almost torn down? History has to be just so. Street names have to be properly attributed and changed with the times and politics, but also with attempts to improve their reputation. (The biggest prostitution street in town was changed from Stewart Ave to Metropolitan Parkway, but the girls were still on the same corners. Only people started having trouble getting their mail because there was already a Metropolitan Ave.) The requisite shovels must be turned for the latest overpriced ticky-tacky gated subdivision or shiny office building.

My gosh, they even closed down Piedmont Park to festivals because people actually used it!!! Make the people go downtown to Olympic Park they say. So who wants to sit on bricks? Moving the Piedmont Arts Festival out of the park killed it dead within 3 years—-30 years of tradition gone the way of Kesslers and the Rich’s Christmas tree at the real Rich’s—-downtown. Moving all the festivals damaged them. I only hope Pride goes back to Piedmont next year when the drought is over. People don’t need to go to parties in the suburbs. The suburbs would be Alabama if it were not for Atlanta. They need to celebrate Atlanta, not a manufactured subdivision in a fake town plopped down in a cowfield in Gwinnett. So who wants to sit on bricks at a manufactured park with no history except a single, though great, event. Piedmont Park has a huge history. A picnic blanket on the grass by the lake is much more comfortable. Even Pride has been moved this year. Yeah, festivals tear up the grass and when it rained, as it always did at Pride hunky young men slid down the mud hills, but the grass grew back and the trees lived.

My word to Atlanta is RELAX. YOur city is getting a reputation for being unfriendly. Too busy to hate,yeah, it is. But it has also gotten too busy to be joyful and even a little bit bad. My pastor said even the gay men were not very friendly when he visited. I told him I knew that, they were too wrapped up in how they looked.

People even have been trying to commercialize Little Five Points of all places. Is nothing sacred? When will Grant Park require identical mail boxes for each home? When will Kirkwood regulate the colors of the houses and turn into Avondale Estates? Lighten up yall. The Fourth of July Parade has even been disbanded !!!!! What are you thinking? Is the Peachtree Road Race next?

When the next Freaknik comes or when the Katrina survivors who immigrated want to throw beads at the rare parades Atlanta has, relax. Don’t regulate. Just let it happen. Be a little funky sometimes. Let life happen, Atlanta. Be real.

By sexyslim

April 14, 2008 1:42 PM | Link to this

I only have to say one thing. TastyPeach you are right we need a freaknik reunion.

By Luton Burn

April 14, 2008 1:44 PM | Link to this

FREAKNIK has now been moved to Sturgis, SD.

By vic

April 14, 2008 1:50 PM | Link to this

I had a good time back then that was something you look forward to every year it never should have been stoped it was only one weekend out of the year

By ms.hoo

April 14, 2008 1:50 PM | Link to this

You certainly published some of the more PG photos of the event…I happened to be staying at Swissotel one of the last few years and watched out the window of my corner hotel windows…it was entertaining from there.

By southside girl

April 14, 2008 1:54 PM | Link to this

DAMN AJC!! OF ALL THINGS TO OPEN UP A BLOG ABOUT?! HERE COMES ALL THE RACISTS REMARKS…………GLAD I DON’T PAY ONE PENNY FOR YOUR PAPER IN PRINT!

By Kevin

April 14, 2008 1:54 PM | Link to this

I am now a resident here in Atlanta, I’m 24. It would have been a bittersweet event for me. I see how congested ATL is now and there isnt anything even going on. If it would have been organized and less violent it would be alive today. But hey there can never ever be a 3-day party and no damage done??

By james

April 14, 2008 2:12 PM | Link to this

I lived in buckhead and all I remember is having drunks pull down their pants and crap on my lawn.

By Native Atlantan

April 14, 2008 2:14 PM | Link to this

Freaknik ended? I don’t know about that, it just seems to chang names. One year it is the NBA All Star weekend another it is Vibe fest. End result is nightmarish traffic jams and Lenox mall closing early due to thefts and loitering.

Seriously, what is so exciting to videotape girls’ behinds and park your cars in major thouroughfares and highways in Atlanta. Thankfully, I don’t get how it is so fun or to some, “the time of my life.”

By commment

April 14, 2008 2:15 PM | Link to this

you certainly published the more PG and PG-13 of the photos from this event. I watched it from a corner suite high up above Peachtree one year…fairly entertaining from there.

By HidFromFreaknik

April 14, 2008 2:16 PM | Link to this

It would have been nice if folks had actually GOTTEN OUT OF THEIR CARS to spend a little cash on something other than gas and sodas and chips instead of causing businesses along the route to close for the weekend. I lived in Midtown then, and the only way to get around was to get up early and beat the fresh new cruisers for the day… I’ve never seen that much litter left behind ANYWHERE. I heard that people hopped out of their cars and P’d in the bushes rather than visit an establishment. It was a huge imposition that COST the city, not made any money, contrary to the promoters’ statements. And will someone PLEASE give our former female police chief a little credit for making it go away?? God bless that woman!

By mike

April 14, 2008 2:18 PM | Link to this

Freaknik was the bomb in the early 90’s but as it grew so did the problems. You all know that no city is going to have that many black folk coming together year after year without finding a way to shut it down! LOL

By Corey

April 14, 2008 2:20 PM | Link to this

Glad it left! This is not a resort city. It was a bad idea from the beginning.

By David Lee

April 14, 2008 2:21 PM | Link to this

Oh’ yea I forgot about my open public defecation while others watched and filmed. You can say I enjoyed the FREAK in Freaknik.

By Blender

April 14, 2008 2:23 PM | Link to this

The problems arose when the city has held captive for days at a time. Atlanta is not a tourist destination and with nothing as a center of activity (like a beach) it left itself open to dissolve into the cess pool it became – crime, intimidation, business being forced to close for days, inability of residents to conduct their normal every day lives. Sadly raping multiple women was what forced the government to step in. If they had controlled it inside Piedmont Park – similar to Music midtown weekends; then it could have kept going. But when you shut down 85 to get out of your car and party on the highway then the party has gotten out of hand. This city wasn’t built to handle 200K aimless people. Good riddance.

By Old School Al

April 14, 2008 2:24 PM | Link to this

I think it was a wonderful idea at its inception. Get a group of students together from HBCUs around the SE. Most had similar backgrounds, and for the most part were the up-and-coming BUPPIES (Black Urban Professionals). However, as students 25 years ago, there was no money to rent condos on the beach, or suites in Buckhead, for that matter; so they used the public parks. Great idea!! As noted in the article, it was not even a a blip on the radar until the AJC reported it. APD didn’t get involved until too late. Just like the All-Star Weekend, it’s too late to try to tame something after it has gotten out of hand. Great planning gave it a great start; poor planning and a lack of proactive measures by officials gave it a poor finish.

Perhaps if we gave our youths and young adults some sort of outlet that was truly affordable like Freaknik initially was, we would not be facing the crime statistics that we have currently.

By themansgonnagetyou

April 14, 2008 2:27 PM | Link to this

i am shocked that there is one iota of racial comments on this message board

i beg the AJC to please bring up a less sensitive topic - perhaps reparations or bringing back the use of the n-word.

By kristi

April 14, 2008 2:30 PM | Link to this

Freaknik was the bomb party fun! As a student you forgot about your school work that weekend and just had good ole fun!
However, we are not that student/college age forever; so as you mature your type of fun/entertainment should also mature. So it’s not a bad thang that Freaknik ended; it was time. For those of you that want to bring it back, GROW UP!!!

By Tomika

April 14, 2008 2:31 PM | Link to this

All the things to write about and you write about this garbage…tsk tsk

By kimberlee

April 14, 2008 2:32 PM | Link to this

As one of the few Atlanta natives left my college days included “Freaknic”. I enjoyed the true fellowship that young urban Atlanta offered college students minus the beach. We did discuss college issues, we did party - aimlessly it ended up being in a traffic jam because like today - Atlanta could not contain large amount of anything - not even youth!

I loved it! Tearing down stores in the Underground was not the highlight - nor traffic jams. 112 was a jewel and we partied alike our ethnic counterparts in Daytona or the Hamptons. With poor organization and thought - Freaknic - or others can and will fall apart.

By year two - natives knew to just stay in! I suppose places like Daytona Beach have that down to a science. Aww those were the good old days. When you drove down 75 you saw a “Castle like Hotel” filled with college students - not Walmart. I digress.

By Rondell

April 14, 2008 2:34 PM | Link to this

To me it’s so ironic that people actually believe Freaknic is gone because of racial prejudice. It’s just like everything else in today’s society. If you don’t let African-Americans do exactly what they please, no matter how inconvenient and destructive it is, they shout “racism”. That’s a slave’s mentality.

By Canes

April 14, 2008 2:57 PM | Link to this

Freaknik 94’ was the best. It had lingering effects. Up to this very day, when people get together for something that creates traffic and people letting it all hang loose on a smaller scale, the first thing that you do to describe it, is to say. “It was like FreakniK”.

By TooOldNow

April 14, 2008 3:00 PM | Link to this

OMG! Freaknik was fun. Was!!! Look, I will go ahead and say up front that I am white. Yes, a white-girl that attended a few of those events. Not the W.G. you are probably thinking of (sterotypical). I had friends at all of the AU colleges. There were some who got out of control. That’s anywhere that has “young” wannabees at it. Believe me, I wanted to crawl into a hole at Music Midtown one year at the country station’s stage. I just hate that it got to the point that it did. Honestly, as the years went on, the ones that got out of control were the “youngins”. Trying to act grown and ended up doing something stupid that always ended up on the T.V. Traffic was awful and yes there was some really stupid things that happened, but that was not FREAKNIK. FREAKNIK was for all of my friends who use to hang out at the Pheonix Dance Club on Marietta St., Charles Disco and Piedmont or Mosely Park on Sunday. Good people having a good time. I’m sorry for those who saw nothing but bad press, as I can understand the distaste you have. I’m mostly sorry that your view on “Black Atlanta” is so stained. Everybody, please just throw your TV out the window. It is the window to hate. It was a great time, but it was time to go when it did. Things like this always happen. Something will come again and take its place, and I will hopefully be able to show my grandkids this tattoo I got at FREAKNIK! Now hush and go get a FAT TUESDAY 190 Octane and I promise you will forget all the bad stuff!!!

By Tice

April 14, 2008 3:06 PM | Link to this

Think about it for a second “freak, noun: an abnormal person,a drug addict verb: to make or become wild or agitated” That’s who attended and that’a how they acted.

By GimmeABreak

April 14, 2008 3:06 PM | Link to this

Once again, Atlanta residents and the AJC do it again! Let’s try to break down any racial relations by bringing up a topic that should have been put to rest!

FreakNik was cancelled due to poor choices by a lot of people. Let’s be honest, why else would anyone stop on the downtown connector to raise HE11 and simply park their cars other than to make a point of ignorance.

Music Midtown…..no, it was not a WHITE event, it was an eclectic mix of music and a coming together of multiple generations, races, and beliefs in one location to enjoy the power of MUSIC.

On another note, if there ever was a “white” event planned, it would immediately be canceled due to the NAACP and other organizations that would immediately claim racism. However, the black community can hold events, have TV channels, a month, and other gatherings surrounding the Black movement and nothing is ever said. Want to talk about racism?

If people cannot let the past go, we will NEVER learn from the past and move on. The Black community has all the opportunities in front of them, they just have to take them. There are too many scholarships, grants, student loan opportunities to claim I cannot get an education, if you put your mind to it, you can achieve an education. You simply have to EARN it and not claim “the white man is keeping me down”.

I am tired to the RACE issue and we simply need to move on. Everything starts at home and it is the parents responsibility to raise children into adults and teach them right from wrong.

By Peace Out

April 14, 2008 3:08 PM | Link to this

It was just an annual affirmation of the worst stereotypes regarding African-Americans. Good riddance.

By Yolawnda

April 14, 2008 3:14 PM | Link to this

James - I’ll bet you had the greenest lawn in Buckhead for weeks afterwards!

By Cobby

April 14, 2008 3:15 PM | Link to this

I am glad it is gone. To the comment above,— at least Woodstock was not in an urban setting!!

By Independent Thinker

April 14, 2008 3:15 PM | Link to this

The reason freaknic is no more is simply becasue of Politics, election year politics. Thanks to former Mayor Bill Campbell, freaknic made its last stand in 1996, after that year, the Mayor along with the police Chief go together and blocked off every access to Downtown Atlanta, arresting innocent citizens if you circled the block twice (notice the signs around Peidmont Park, no crusing) all of that was because of freaknic, they made new laws to harrass black people.

I can remember the times of Budfest - Potfest and other events that were mostly white people events. The city and police made new laws then, in fact laws were being broken left and right. But when freaknic started to catch on, all of a sudden here comes the new laws. For those of you that think I am off my rocker, background check (I was born and raised in Atlanta, about 10 mins walking distance from Downtown. I know the city like I know the back of my hand). Freaknic brought a lot of revenue to Atlanta, but when Cambell and the Chief started running off black folks, all of that money went to Florida.

With all the HBCU’s in the Atlanta area, the is nothing for the student to call there own, they have to drive to another state just to party during spring break with like minded people. Sidebar - I was happy when Campbell got thrown in Jail that’s Mayor that was BAD for Atlanta.

By FarLeftLoons

April 14, 2008 3:18 PM | Link to this

Freaknik, 50 Cent, OJ Simpson, and Rev. Jeremiah Wright. Black America can be proud. Nothing but idiots and racists hurting their own race. MLK, Jr. would be so proud.

By TruthHurts

April 14, 2008 3:18 PM | Link to this

This newspaper’s website is beyond pathetic. Why would any major news organization do a story about Freaknik which was the epitome of disgusting, tacky, ghetto, and low class. The NY Times, Washington Post, or LA Times would never fill their website with such rubbish.

By Bubba

April 14, 2008 3:26 PM | Link to this

Yeah, the Freaknik kids are all grown up and are running Dekalb cou nty, Lithonia, Grady Hospital. Well, at least Grady has been saved. I wonder how Dekalb and Lithonia are going to make it?

By Harmony

April 14, 2008 3:49 PM | Link to this

WELL SAID!!

By Atlanta Lover

April 14, 2008 1:42 PM

I used to love Atlanta for it’s diversity but the dynamics have changed and it’s disheartening. No one complains when non-black events clog up the roads for a day or two…I digress, the comments in this section prove that HATE is alive and well in the South.

The city of Atlanta died a long time ago…

By Matt

April 14, 2008 3:51 PM | Link to this

It was too congested downtown. Business and commerce come first. I personally like the original concept. What about in a neighboring county with county and school sponsorship and events? It could be a money maker. They would have to do something to keep the thug factor out of it and keep it safe for the kids. It can’t be a free for all crazy fest. That’s what I saw.

By BEV

April 14, 2008 3:53 PM | Link to this

What a brunch of knuckle-heads. The last Freaknik in Atlanta, I was 47 yrs old. I got caught in the traffic and had fun! The kids were having fun and causing no harm until the idiot Mayor stuffed them all in to one corner of the city (Southwest Atlanta)! Why is it others can come to Atlanta and have the run of the city, but these kids were cornered off and not offered the same priviledges? When something new opens, it’s always open to a select few, but the majority of Atlantans (Blacks) pay the taxes for it! I want everyone to have fun, not just the select FEW! COME BACK FREAKNIK!!

By malcolm

April 14, 2008 4:17 PM | Link to this

Freaknik made traffic horrible for me two straight years.Year one freaknik participants and hangers-on turned a ten minute trip into a sixty minute trip.Year two, freaknik closed down not a side street but I-75/85 north for thirty minutes.Good riddance.

By What?

April 14, 2008 4:33 PM | Link to this

Take Freaknik to New Orleans. They need the business, maybe it will help rebuild that once wonderful city.

By JP

April 14, 2008 5:56 PM | Link to this

Thank God it’s outta here. It’s no fun when it affects the lives of the residents, giving them a major headache. With that many people, something is bound to happen.

By Clayton County in 2009

April 14, 2008 6:02 PM | Link to this

If Freaknik is such a wonderful event, have it in Clayton County where it belongs.

Does it every make any sense to grill out in the middle of the freeway? What about going to some mall parking lot and sitting there doing nothing for 8 straight hours?

If any businesses were REALLY making money off Freaknik there would be business owners asking the event to come back…

By Renae

April 14, 2008 6:21 PM | Link to this

Oh! Good Times!

By Danny

April 15, 2008 6:24 AM | Link to this

Attending Freaknik was a contributing factor to my moving to Atlanta to attend college. Now that I’m here, I can understand why so many people were pushing it out. By 1996, I had seen it transform into an all out weekend for pimps to put their females out as college students. Today, I’m glad that Freaknik has moved on, but I’ll always have my memories of those days.