http://www.atlantamagazine.com/90s/freaknik-the-rise-and-fall-of-atlantas-most-infamous-street-party/

Chapter I. The Innocent Origins

It all started in the spring of 1983 with a picnic organized by students attending the Atlanta University Center. As at other historically black colleges and universities, AUC was home to “state clubs” made up of students with common home states. The clubs held social events during the school year and served as pre-Facebook clearinghouses for shared rides home. That spring, members of the DC Metro club threw a picnic in Piedmont Park for students who found themselves stuck on campus over spring break. It was a simple event—sandwiches, coolers, boom boxes, that sort of thing, recalls Sharon Toomer, then a Spelman College freshman and one of the organizers. “A lot of us came by bus; no one had cars back then,” she says of the gathering in the field at the corner of 10th Street and Monroe Drive. In those days, Piedmont Park was shabby, the picnic area little more than a vacant lot.

- See more at: http://www.atlantamagazine.com/90s/freaknik-the-rise-and-fall-of-atlantas-most-infamous-street-party/#sthash.nEar6KZn.dpuf

anyway, going to peek at that article in a bit.

famous. or infamous, depending on how you wanna look at it...


***
I'm tryna be better off, not better than...

come from one weekend.

you must not realize just how many folks were going to Freaknic, Kappa Beach Party, Black Bike Week, and the like with video cameras even back then.

Right now, sitting on a shelf or in a box in somebody's basement exists a tape with footage of some Black celeb or "upstanding" member of government in their younger years, male and female, butt naked shakin their ass, fuckin and suckin in the middle of the street at one of these events.

.

more liberal within the last few years.

Think about how many strippers in the 90's would have HAAAATED for pictures of them to leak out. Now, strippers post pics daily that show them at work, while they strip, allll on da Gram. So I feel like Freaknik in this era means everything would be on camera, but a lotta folks wouldn't care much about it. Hell, I'm sure some Politician types in 5-15 years will be "exposed" for something they did on Social Media, and no one will care

..that will NEVER see the light of day.


*skatin' the rings of saturn*


..and miles to go before i sleep...

I went to the fist 4. Police started to take the fun away around 3.

.
.
.

I wasn't ready. Never heard of that shit til I went down south. We head down to ATL and get dropped off right in the middle of Peachtree downtown around 6pm and its like a ghost town. My boy says " in a few hours it will be standing room only"

in my mind I'm thinking small festival, niggas exaggerating.

Yo!!! We came back and it was a sea of Black people.

Man, I went back to Pittsburgh showing photos and my friends acted like I went to Moon. People would run up on me asking me to show them proof.

I remember someone told me it was a Range Rover with four BAD bad ones who were just riding around completely butt naked.

no freaknik stories...

but many a greekfest girl getting eaten out by random dude on hood of a car on broad st after ppl left the park

always wondered what both parties were thinking the next day after shit settled down.

nothing...

Shit was in the moment.. probably high fives all around the next day..

or not...

Pour some liqa on it.. keep it clean

I've never seen such debauchery (probably for good reason) but man...

I know during the entire summer of 93, Downtown Detroit on Jefferson Ave, Belle Isle, and 7 mile rd between the Lodge and Southfield freeway had Freaknik levels of debauchery every weekend. In '91 and '92 it was the Fenkel strip. Cops shut down 7 mile, but they couldn't shut down Belle Isle during the summers and I had even heard about the Island gettin packed up like that when I left Detroit in 03.

I've heard about a few cruising spots in Houston, Dallas, Miami, and somewhere around LA as having similar shit going on around the same time. Guarantee you that there was a spot somewhere near you like that back in those days.


---------------------------

"Where was the peace when we were getting shot? Where's the peace when we were getting laid out?
Where is the peace when we are in the back of ambulances? Where is the peace then?
They don't want to call for peace then.

... jumpin out shakin ass. one sat on the trunk and threw her legs in the air and yelled "who can eat this pussy good?" and wound up with a grip of dudes in line to eat her pussy.

One was gettin fucked on the side of the car with a mob of dudes surrounding her, the other was dancing.

... and there was at least 4 video camera in the mix.


---------------------------

"Where was the peace when we were getting shot? Where's the peace when we were getting laid out?
Where is the peace when we are in the back of ambulances? Where is the peace then?
They don't want to call for peace then.

or someone else saw that same girl on the hood

cause this isn't the first time I heard that story.

and a pimp was selling a dream for $100...

but I also heard about a lot of people getting robbed like this too...

It was ridiculous...

you can't have attended two or more of these and not seen somebody fucking somebody on top of something.

D

.
.
.

traffic was stopped....folks just parked and partying

Drunk off that malt likka .. probably OE or Red Bull (yea it was a cheap beer before an energy drink) on that chase all day. Great times

those were the days...


---------------------------

"Where was the peace when we were getting shot? Where's the peace when we were getting laid out?
Where is the peace when we are in the back of ambulances? Where is the peace then?
They don't want to call for peace then.

http://media.cleveland.com/plain-dealer/photo/2012/07/-7ce4292a09b36b52.jpg

it was so much stronger than the blue bull

It got worse and worse...but them 1st few I went to?

ooooooooooo LAWD!!!

Fun times

D

to the point where it wasn't fun anymore.

I think it also rained that Saturday and it kind of put the nail on the coffin for me.

I also remember bringing down my people from Pittsburgh one year and realizing how bamma them niggas were when it came to East Coast flavor.

it was just niggas everywhere and not really live

but Daytona for Black Beach and even Mississippi had a version that was just endless nigga shit

was freaknik only by name. the traffic routing and way too many people killed it.

'cause Black Bike Week was wild as shit in the late 90's.


---------------------------

"Where was the peace when we were getting shot? Where's the peace when we were getting laid out?
Where is the peace when we are in the back of ambulances? Where is the peace then?
They don't want to call for peace then.

at a rest stop in Bmore or Richmond

cause that shit was over by 98.

b/c...TITTIES!!!

absolutely.

take that shit >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> over there.
---------------------------

"Where was the peace when we were getting shot? Where's the peace when we were getting laid out?
Where is the peace when we are in the back of ambulances? Where is the peace then?
They don't want to call for peace then.

https://www.google.com/search?q=rapes+at+folsom+fair&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8#safe=active&q=rape+at+folsom+fair

no news stories about actual rape happening.

then i did the same w/'rape at freaknik' and got a few hits like these:

https://www.google.com/search?q=rape+at+freaknik&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8

http://www.complex.com/pop-culture/2013/04/the-oral-history-of-freaknik

Once the hype around Freaknik reached a fever pitch, and downtown Atlanta was overrun with the young and nasty, Mayor Bill Campbell cracked down, appointing a special committee on Freaknik consisting of city council members. Violence was on the rise—in 1995 a reported 2,000 crimes were committed, ranging from indecent exposure to rape.

http://www.mndaily.com/node/6844

Women assaulted at Freaknik fiesta
ATLANTA (AP) -- The party may be over for Freaknik, Atlanta's annual spring festival for black college students. Shocked by TV footage of gangs of men groping women during the festival last month, the

...but, of course, the story linked in the OP already has this language:

Freaknik 1995 wrapped up with grim reports. The rape unit at Grady Memorial Hospital treated 10 victims—far more than in a typical weekend. Police made at least 93 arrests and revelers looted stores in Underground Atlanta and Greenbriar Mall. Three people were shot.

*shrugs*

I'm sure there were some that weren't reported

really fucked up Freaknic.

Shit was awesome until they started running in packs snatchin chains and shit.

I never saw any violence but I remember my boy telling me about the Greek in Philly one year. Shit was disgusting. Had girls hugging trees because dudes were snatching off shirts and shit.

Smh... fucking savages.

>really fucked up Freaknic.
>
>Shit was awesome until they started running in packs snatchin
>chains and shit.
>
>I never saw any violence but I remember my boy telling me
>about the Greek in Philly one year. Shit was disgusting. Had
>girls hugging trees because dudes were snatching off shirts
>and shit.
>
>Smh... fucking savages.
>

From Charleston SC to ATL....

well worth it...

Weed, Liquor and Hip Hop the recipe... i remember being in a hotel room FULL of bad chicks in swimsuits some naked I met a chick from Mississippi who was going to Hampton she was a big girl but she looked like jill scott...

I get chills sometimes when I think about some of the stuff that went down in those years....

among other unwanted things, but hey -- good times right?

---------------------------

"Where was the peace when we were getting shot? Where's the peace when we were getting laid out?
Where is the peace when we are in the back of ambulances? Where is the peace then?
They don't want to call for peace then.

I remember the traffic, for sure. Probably my first year living here '92-'93, my mom and I got caught in that traffic once, and remembered to not be out during Freaknik, lol.

Another year, I remember my cousin was supposed to be sitting with me and my other cousins (his brother & sister), and he got the page like a Bat Signal, and dipped on our asses for the rest of the weekend. My mom came to get me on Sunday like "Where's Ricky?" We hadn't seen that nigga since Friday afternoon.

98 was just bad traffic

My brother was in school down there during that time and he told horror stories of how women were treated during it.


**********
"Everyone has a plan until you punch them in the face. Then they don't have a plan anymore." (c) Mike Tyson

"what's a leader if he isn't reluctant"

A lot of fun times but you definitely had some dudes with no home training.

They should talk about all of it. I was there for 3 or 4 of them 92 to 95. Live as hell..

but I did see some wild shit.

I'm shocked it took this long to compile enough footage to make a coherent documentary.

The malls were popping, I-85 was a parking lot, Bankhead was wild, Buckhead was largely off limits and I say this as someone who wasn't even cool enough to really get into the kind of trouble that would make the documentary interesting to today's reality tv raised viewer.

and mostly focused on taking photos with fly honeys.. lol

that was it.

I tried to make some things happen but it was mostly planting seeds for linking up at later dates.

advertising for the doc.

I think this will show that the younger folks today aren't different than those in the past. their environments are not the same and we're older. so it may seem like the kids are wildlyn more that previous generations.

some are, but overall we were doing a lot of the same type of young people shit as these newer generations. like putting shit on film lol.

what was so special about freaknik?

was it a time capsule?

was the event that much different than other spring break events?

that was some white shit. When I think of spring break its always like the movies or MTV where its 1000 white kids and 2 corny Black dudes along for the ride.

IMO anytime you have a party/weekend grow strictly from word of mouth into 200,000 Black kids from all over the country its something magical.

I think you might be using adult logic when asking about what made it so special.

Imagine being 18 and your new friends at college take a road trip to ATL to party for a weekend with no rules?

my boy from ATL: yo, lets hit up Freaknik that shit is crazy
me: wtf is a Freaknik

… 5 hours later I’m surrounded by 200K Black kids drinking and smoking by the Underground entrance.

that shit is the stuff of legends b. Its some movie type shit for Black kids who never heard of it.

when I went back to Pittsburgh and showed everyone all those photos they acted like I went to another planet.

like black bike week. though I'm not sure if that existed during the freaknik time frame.

I lived here during freaknik and to some degree, it was somewhat 'normal' in ATL at the time. then it got too big and was made to fizzle. The AUC students were always around so even the freaknik visitors didn't seem different to me.

I can see how the legend would spread when folks went back home. good point.

but for everyone else it was candy land.

Have to remember this was around the time when ATL was just getting that rep as the Black mecca. People up north talked about Atlanta like it was Brazil.

>Have to remember this was around the time when ATL was just
>getting that rep as the Black mecca. People up north talked
>about Atlanta like it was Brazil.

Brilliant marketing. Whether intentional or not

in order to stop the documentary from being released.

apparently there's some lawyers, execs, maybe even a judge or two who are worried they might be in that footage and they are trying to stop it from coming out.

wonder how that's gonna go, since i believe there's already a couple Freaknik docs out there.

so you know they were doing some of the wildest shit back in college.. lol.

Are they using their names when filing these lawsuits!

People scared enough to dry snitch on themselves.. smh.

I’m excited.. hoping I see myself in a clip or 2.

and slim kid trey from Pharcyde was literally on some passing me by shit and walked up on us like “you know theres other fish in the sea” and threw salt in my game

my homie was on the dance floor with a girl and 2 body guards came up and cornered them on some “Chi Ali wants to dance with her”

he was like “this lil kid just stole my shorty”

you really had to have game, money or some perfect timing to make shit pop.

https://youtu.be/gO-Y3QEKDUg

I’m sure they have videos of all types of shit

being young with plenty of disposable income is a recipe for all kinds of dumb activities. The things we did and stories I could tell dont age well.