Hulu is releasing a new documentary covering the history of Freaknik.
Dubbed “Freaknik: The Wildest Party Never Told,” the doc will recount the rise and fall of what started as a small Atlanta HBCU picnic, then exploded in the 1990s into an influential street party that drew hundreds of thousands of people to Atlanta from far and wide.
It expanded into events such as dance contests, concerts, parties, sporting events, rap sessions and job fairs.
Credit: file-photo
Credit: file-photo
At its peak in 1994 and 1995, Freaknik gummed up traffic in parts of Atlanta to epic proportions and featured drugs, trash, looting and sexual assault. In 1996, the city actively cracked down on party activities on public streets and by the late 1990s, Freaknik was dead.
>>RELATED: PHOTOS FROM FREAKNIK
“I was disappointed by what it became,” Sharon Toomer, one of the founders of Freaknik, told the AJC in 2014. “Its original purpose was to be an annual event to encourage camaraderie between historically Black colleges. It was a rare opportunity for Black college students to get together.”
Over the past two decades, party promoters have tried to revive Freaknik to no avail.
Credit: David Tulis / AJC
Credit: David Tulis / AJC
Atlanta rap legend and producer Jermaine Dupri is one of the executive producers for the doc, along with Luther Campbell of 2 Live Crew fame. The showrunner is Geraldine L. Porras, who previously worked on W. Kamau Bell’s CNN series “United Shades of America.”
No release date has been announced for the documentary.
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