[1] 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.
The event drastically 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.
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.
[5] Freaknik was conceived in March 1982 on Spelman College campus in a DC Metro Club meeting headed by then president Schuyla Goodson.
In 1988, Spelman College President Johnnetta B. Cole banned the DC Metro Club from involvement with Freaknic for school liability reasons.
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").
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.
[7][8][9][10][11] As the event became more popular to the general public, Black people from all regions of the United States, Canada, the Caribbean and Europe came to participate in it.
Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed also said that "he will be tough and even sue organizers of any Freaknic-related activities who violate city guidelines.
[17][18][19][20] Williams Street Studios produced a one-hour special spoof titled Freaknik: The Musical based on the popular festival.
[21] A season two episode of Popular features the character Mary Cherry saying "I went to Freaknik in hotlanta and turned the mother out" when grilled on her spring break activities.
[23] In his mixtape "STN MTN / Kauai", Childish Gambino opens by saying that he had a dream that he ran Atlanta, and among other things, he would bring back Freaknik.
[24] On "Hair Day", the eleventh episode of season six of the ABC series Black-ish, Dre reveals to his son Jack that as a younger man he was beaten in a dance-off by a someone who brought his own whistle to the party, which raised the ire of his oldest son, Junior, who insisted Dre had told him "What happens at Freaknik stays at Freaknik."