Full house this weekend: DOT goes green, advises riding MARTA

By Steve Visser

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Freaknikers might want to consider cruising on MARTA. Otherwise this weekend they'll be competing for road space with a beer fest, a robotics competition, basketball at Philips, baseball at Turner Field, the Atlanta Dogwood Festival at Piedmont Park -- an expected 300,000 people in all.

"If it is not absolutely necessary for you to drive your car this weekend, we strongly urge you to find another way," state Department of Transportation spokeswoman Crystal Paulk-Buchanan said.  "We're encouraging everyone who is going anywhere in downtown or Midtown to use MARTA."

But can you really say that to a Freakniker? The automobile and the city street were basic ingredients of the rolling, unorganized party that became notorious for gridlock and raucous behavior in the 1990s.

Now as two groups are trying to revive it, promising a less chaotic fashion, it's slated for a weekend when the Department of Transportation plans to close two or three northbound traffic lanes on the Downtown Connector during an already event-heavy weekend. The great unknown is whether Freaknik is returning full force -- or only as a loud buzz.

The party started as a gathering of students from historically black colleges on spring break and morphed into a huge annual gathering of tens of thousands of people turning the streets into party central.

In years past, Atlanta police have clashed with Freaknikers. The department is expected to announce plans Wednesday for dealing with an anticipated explosion of traffic in downtown and Midtown. So far they have downplayed Freaknik -- although they say most or all officers will be out in uniform.

In 1983 Freaknik was a picnic but by 1993 it was a street party that shut down the city. In addition to the massive traffic jams, the influx of an estimate 200,000 college students brought a spectacle of indecent behavior to the streets of Atlanta during its peak in 1994 and 1995.

By the time the party faded in 1999, it wasn’t half the fun it had been for many participants. That year, police arrested 350 people and towed 400 cars. The city paid more than $1 million in overtime to police officers -- mostly for traffic control.

In 2000, the party moved. Students went to Galveston, Texas, or Daytona Beach, Fla., the AJC reported later.

This year's organizers, Freaknic Atlanta and iFreaknik, are both hinting at a kinder, gentler Freaknik. They've spread out the timing and geography of events -- from the Cascade area to Stone Mountain and Roswell -- to help avoid gridlock.

Police in Roswell and DeKalb County say they have contingency plans to deal with all the weekend's events, not just a possibly revived Freaknik.

Davinci Barcelo, the 26-year-old head of iFreaknik, estimates the event will bring 20,000 people, adding he's receiving phone calls from partygoers from Los Angeles, Miami and New York. Freaknic Atlanta's main organizer, J.K. Jones, said there is a “strong base of law-abiding citizens” who want to attend Freaknik.

"We're attracting tourist dollars for the city," Barcelo said.

But revival attendance estimates remain shadowy.  iFreaknik's 20,000 number is based in part on folks who were already expected to be in town for events like the Braves game and the Dogwood Festival. And on Freaknic Atlanta's Web site as of late Tuesday afternoon, only 20 people had confirmed they were attending.

Other events have their own crowd projections. A spokesman for the Hawks, which have been averaging 16,482 people a game, said they hope to sell out the more than 18,700 seats in Philips Arena for the first playoff game this weekend. And the Braves -- averaging 20,000 a game so far this season -- are hoping for more with the prospect of good weather.

Douglas Blair, spokesman for the Georgia Dome, said it is expecting 20,000 people from all over the U.S. and a few other other countries for "FIRST Robotics," a competition for teams of kids ages 9 to 18.

The Sweetwater 420 Fest is expecting about 30,000 people in Candler Park over Saturday and Sunday. "Last year we had 25,000 and it rained on Sunday," said Steve Farace, the company spokesman.  He says the company will debut a wheat beer called SchWheat.  "It kind of flows from the tongue," he said of the name.

Brian Hill, executive director of the Dogwood Festival, encourages using MARTA, saying it fits the Festival's green theme and organizers will be running a shuttle from the Arts Center and the 10th Street train stations. Dogwood is powering generators with biodiesel -- using the oil from the cooking stations of the vendors, Hill said.

But he is mum on now many people he expects to attend. "I think we'll have a parkful," he said. "We have stretched out to provide as much space as possible and added some areas where people can stretch out on the ground."

Staff writers Ernie Suggs, Michelle E. Shaw, Marcus Garner and Eric Stirgus contributed to this report.