When Hulu announced the upcoming release of a documentary based on Freaknik, some attendees instantly became nervous. “Freaknik: The Wildest Party Never Told” will shed light on the rise and fall of the biggest spring break party that catered to HBCU students.
Freaknik was initially created in 1983 when a group of students from the Atlanta University Center met at John H. White Park on Cascade Road to eat, drink, and listen to music. Rick James’ “Super Freak” was a popular song at the time, so event organizers used elements of the song’s title and combined it with the word, picnic. What began as a small gathering of HBCU students eventually became the biggest block party in America by 1994.
However, Freaknik took place during a time where there were no cell phones or social media. As a result, most of the risqué activities that happened in Atlanta, stayed in Atlanta.
But there were a few partygoers who took camcorders to the festivities and captured exclusive footage of college-aged men and women living care free in the midst of plenty of alcohol and loud music. Some of that footage is likely to make it to the documentary.
Nearly 30 years later, those college students are now responsible adults who have successful careers and are parents, or grand parents. The days of Freaknik were long gone and they were living their best lives. That’s until the potential of being seen wilding out as a 20-year-old on the streets of Atlanta became a possibility.
One TikTok user named Tina went viral over the weekend after she attempted to get ahead of the story in case her younger self pops up in the documentary in full party mode.
“I don’t know y’all, we might be in trouble,” she said. “Hulu is about to release a documentary about ’94 Freaknik. I’ve been to several Freakniks and ’94 was one that I attended. So I’m just praying for Jesus to be a fence. I’m praying that Jesus just be a big, tall privacy fence. That’s my prayer. This Easter, this Good Friday. That’s a prayer. I will say this though, when they would bring out those video cameras and start recording, I immediately removed myself from the situation. So, hopefully that worked to my benefit, but you never know. So if you see ya girl in the documentary, at least I’m fully clothed. That’s all I got. But yeah, they about to put our business out on the street.”
Former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms used Instagram to send a warning by posting, “Y’all better hope your kids and employers don’t spot you.”
Comedian Roy Woods Jr. took to Twitter and wrote, “Bout to be a lot of divorces when that Freaknik doc drop. A couple pastors gone have to step down from the pulpit too.”
Hulu has yet to announce a date for the release, but executive producers include show-runner Geraldine L. Porras and director P Frank Williams, as well as Jermaine Dupri, Luther Campbell, Peter Bittenbender and Melissa Cooper for Mass Appeal, Eric Tomosunas for Swirl Films, Terry Ross and Alex Avant. Nikki Byles and Jay Allen are producers.
All the Freaknik aunties scared 😭😭 pic.twitter.com/giFDIS3Nrj
— ¥| Fit Nurse| € (@TrainLikeDime) April 9, 2023
