Jermaine Dupri said in a recent Instagram post that he has begun working on a new documentary based on “Freaknik,” the infamous Atlanta spring break festival that started in the 80’s and attracted college students and young adults from all around the country.
Dupri made the announcement in a IG post where he was in a hotel room facing the Atlanta Braves Truist Park stadium.
“This the first day of us shooting for the Freaknik documentary,” Dupri said. “So everybody that missed freaknik, we gon’ show y’all what y’all missed.”
Freaknik started off in 1983 when students from the Atlanta University Center (Morehouse College, Spelman College, and Clark Atlanta University) came together to throw a small picnic in a park near the campus for students who could not afford to go home for spring break.
The event was held annually, and in the 90’s Freaknik would end up growing into an entire festival, with concerts, a basketball tournament, dance contests, and even a job fair. At its height, approximately 300,000 people from around the country would attend the event.
However, by 1999, Freaknik had moved into the neighboring DeKalb County, GA. However, celebrations of the festival would dwindle due to increased police activity. In 2010, former Mayor of Atlanta, Kasim Reed officially banned Freaknik and any Freaknik-related activities.
There have been attempts to revive Freaknik, however, they have failed to gain the same crowd and attention as it did in its heyday.
