Freaknik
Freaknik (; originally Freaknic) was an annual spring break festival in Atlanta, Georgia. It was initially attended by students enrolled at historically black colleges and universities in the Atlanta University Center. It began in 1983 as a small picnic in a public park near the Atlanta University Center sponsored by the D.C. Metro Club for students who could not afford to return home for spring break. It continued as an annual event held during the third weekend in April. The event increased in size and popularity in the 1990s, incorporating dance contests, concerts, parties, a basketball tournament, rap sessions, a film festival and a job fair. The Atlanta magazine called it Atlanta's most infamous street party. In 1999, actions by the police and elected officials caused celebration of Freaknik to cease. A revamped version returned for one day on June 22, 2019 as "FreakNik Atlanta '19 - The Festival" with a concert at Cellairis Amphitheatre at Lakewood. As of 2020, it was set to be rebranded as a much safer and calmer non-spring break affiliated event centered around several artists performing. Originally "Freaknic", the name of the event is a portmanteau of "picnic" and "freak", in accordance with the D.C. Metro Club's 1982–1983 theme "The Return of the Freak". History Freaknik was conceived in March 1982 on Spelman College campus 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 suggested 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. First held in John A. White Park in Atlanta in April 1982, it was attended by at most 150 students. 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, independent national promoter Daryl Baptiste Miller was asked by the DC Metro Club to promote it. The event grew from 15,000 to over 300,000 in five years. This event took place at the then 33-acre Lakewood Fairgrounds and had 60 thousand people in attendance. In 1993, two non-HBCU students, party promoters Ronn Greene and Diya Nabawi, were the first to trademark the name, spelled officially as "Freaknik" (ending with a "k"). Commercialization In 1993, Kristina Copeland, a woman from Washington, D.C., and Ronn Greene, produced the second event, held at the Lakewood Fairgrounds. They invited the provocative and controversial artist Luke Campbell from 2 Live Crew fame, and the nature of the event took a major undignified turn. Non-HBCU students began heavily incorporating degenerate behaviors such as public nudity, public sexual acts, and sexual violence towards women. Atlanta University Center students tried to promote Freaknic as a non-provocative