While most of you transplants never experienced the joys of Freaknik, I’m sure you’ve heard us ATLiens reminisce over the event quite often. Most of us have fond memories of the small lil picnic that started near the campus of the AU center, while there are those of you who based your decision to move to the “A” on the joys you experienced of the massive “Freak-fest” that the small lil picnic evolved into.
There’s been a lot of talk about the return of Freaknik in 2010 after news outlets discovered a website promoting the event. The site says that the event is planed to return to Atlanta this April, but there’s no permit application and city officials don’t expect the event to happen.
The Official Atlanta Freaknic Site says the event will be held April 16-18 in Washington Park but it also said that last year and the year before.
A businessman named J.K. Jones says he’s behind the site that’s touting Freaknik 2010 in Atlanta and told 11Alive News he wants to revive the upbeat revelry of the festivals that went away a decade ago minus the unruly crowds and criminal conduct that ultimately drove it out of town.
Jones hopes to get corporate sponsorship for the event but without the city’s support he may have a hard time.? Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed was recently asked about the event and states that fact or fiction, the city will not support it:
I don’t believe it will materialize and it’s not my intention for the city to be supportive of it.
We have too many challenges in the public safety space to deploy those kinds of resources around a program or an event that is not well run or well managed.
To create a festival over the Internet is something I’m not comfortable in doing when I have a police force that is extraordinarily stretched.
I personally think that Freaknik was a historic event that should be left in the past. There’s no way that it can be what it once was. Especially after the craziness it turned into.? I dunno.? What do you guys think?
To FREAK or not to FREAK? That is the question…
