Freaknik

Freaknik (/ˈfriːknɪk/; 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 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.

For the Adult Swim television special, see Freaknik: The Musical. For the hacker convention, see PhreakNIC.

The Atlanta magazine called it Atlanta's most infamous street party. As the event grew to over 250,000 people, the problems worsened. By 1999, Atlanta area police and elected officials worked together to end Freaknik. 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.

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".

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