This is what They Thought, But we Knew Differently.....try (1) million people came in 1994

Paper: The Atlanta Journal and The Atlanta Constitution
Title: For Freaknik, the thrill is gone - Hotel rooms are being booked, and the city is planning for crowds, but some say party is waning.
Author: Carlos Campos
Date: March 14, 1999
Section: Local News
Page: F2

There are signs that Atlanta's rowdy, rolling and often raunchy third-weekend-in-April street party -- Freaknik -- may be slowing down. With a little more than a month to go, the city of Atlanta has yet to receive any requests for permits to hold outdoor Freaknik events. The deadline for such permits passed more than two months ago.Also, the city has yet to appoint a Black College Spring Break Committee, a panel of city leaders chosen by the mayor to bring order to the chaotic event. In past years, the committee has been in place by January.

  Meanwhile, two main Internet sites for the party (https://www.freaknik.net and https://www.freaknic.net) list no events and no advertisers -- further signs that interest in Freaknik may be waning.

  "My perception is that all the indications say that the event is going to be a nonevent," said George Hawthorne, chairman of last year's spring break committee. "I think the event permits are a good indicator, and the Web sites that I have been monitoring . . . they're indicating that there's a lot less attention to Freaknik and a lot less attention in Atlanta."

  At the event's peak in 1994, the city issued six outdoor festival permits. That number dwindled to two in 1995 and subsequent years and dropped to just one last year. Still, 50,000 people participated in Freaknik celebrations.

  DeWayne Martin, Mayor Bill Campbell's chief of staff, said the city isn't certain of how many students are coming, but is preparing to handle large crowds the weekend of April 16-18.

  "I don't think that's a reliable indicator one way or the other," Martin said of the lack of permit applications. "We had only one application last year. We always take the position that we have the responsibility to prepare for guests and visitors no matter what that number may be."

  About 200,000 people came for Freaknik in 1994, but the numbers have declined since. Even so, Atlantans still have vivid memories of being stuck in downtown, Midtown and Buckhead traffic, unable to get to weddings, proms, plays and other planned events.

   "All the meeting planners, you don't risk having a nice event where you can't have access to the venues," said Jeff Terry, general manager of Midtown caterers Proof of the Pudding. "From our standpoint, it hasn't been great for our business. People are still scared off."

  Rebecca Deutsch, a Roswell wedding consultant, said she still advises her clients not to get married in town on the third weekend in April.

  "I just basically tell them, that is Freaknik (weekend) and depending if you're going to have a lot of out-of-town guests, if they're coming in from the airport . . . they're going to have to deal with it, if they have to go through downtown," she said.

  Ronn Greene, co-owner of the freaknik.net Web site, said the party isn't going away.  "This thing is now 17 years old, and it has existed without events," he said. "It has existed by word of mouth. Even when there weren't events scheduled, people still came to Atlanta."

  Some hotels said reservations for Freaknik weekend are on pace with years past, while others said it's noticeably down.

  "I don't think it's going to be as major as it has been," said Damien Lawton, the front office manager at the downtown Howard Johnson's, which has 93 rooms.

  Lawton said this is his fourth Freaknik with the hotel, and in past years, rooms for that weekend have sold out by early March. This year, the hotel still has 53 rooms available during that period. And of the 43 that are booked, "not very many" are reserved for Freaknik guests, Lawton said.  "I don't know what happened this year, but it has relatively slowed down a great deal."

  But spokesmen at the downtown Courtyard by Marriott and Holiday Inn and Midtown Days Inn say they're either booked with Freaknik guests or soon expect to be.

  The Courtyard by Marriott on Piedmont Avenue has booked all 211 of its rooms for the weekend, said its reservation manager.

  He said about 150 of the rooms have been reserved by Freaknik revelers, and phone calls to the hotel have been running roughly the same as in past years.

  Freaknik began in 1982 as a laid-back picnic to give Atlanta University Center students from the Washington area a chance to blow off some steam before final exams.

  Though it has grown, it has never been an organized or predictable event.  Part of the reason some see the interest waning in Freaknik is because of competing black college spring break parties in other towns.

  Atlanta's street party will again face competition this year from two Southern beach towns.

  Between 75,000 and 90,000 people went to the Kappa Beach Party Weekend last year at Galveston Island, a Gulf of Mexico beach town in Texas about 50 miles south of Houston. It was held the same weekend as Atlanta's.

  "We're expecting the same number this year, if not more," said Galveston City Manager Steve LeBlanc.  And the Daytona Beach, Fla., weekend known as Black College Reunion drew about 100,000 people last year, said City Manager Carey Smith. It is held the weekend before Freaknik.

  Daytona is expecting just as many people this year.

  "We have no idea (of how many are coming)," Smith said. "But judging by the hotel reservations, which is probably the most accurate measure, it appears that the people coming appears to be a pretty good number."

Caption:
Photo 19d03 FREAKNIK  D 4/18_247093: Revelers cruise for women on Marietta Street during Freaknik '98. Some student parties have shifted farther south. / JEAN SHIFRIN / Staff Photo FREAKNIK 15 4/17_17752_246947: Clogging streets in expensive cars seemed to be the true mission of Freaknik for several years. Consultants still advise against holding events in downtown Atlanta on the third weekend in April. / RENEE HANNANS / Staff

Author: Carlos Campos
Section: Local News
Page: F2

Copyright 1999  The Atlanta Journal and The Atlanta Constitution