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Freaknik would have been no problem if it had been held at a location outside the city like Tomorrow World is.
However, you can't have a group of people stopping in the middle of public thoroughfares and shutting everybody else's life down. It doesn't matter who is doing this kind of disruption. The result is chaos.
This pretty much shaped Atlanta's hip hop scene as well in the 90s. Outside of Outkast and the Dungeon Family, most people know of 90s Atlanta hip hop with So So Def All Stars, Freak Nasty, Kilo Ali, DJ Taz, Raheem the Dream etc. The type of music they made was PERFECT for this. Didn't help that Florida was down the street and they made similar music that was even more raunchier than Atlanta's. And you hear some of Florida's hip hop in this video.
This pretty much shaped Atlanta's hip hop scene as well in the 90s. Outside of Outkast and the Dungeon Family, most people know of 90s Atlanta hip hop with So So Def All Stars, Freak Nasty, Kilo Ali, DJ Taz, Raheem the Dream etc. The type of music they made was PERFECT for this. Didn't help that Florida was down the street and they made similar music that was even more raunchier than Atlanta's. And you hear some of Florida's hip hop in this video.
Bootyshake Music (I hate the term Miami Bass)Was a pretty fun sub genre of hip hop. Everyone could have fun to it. It was great for the skating rinks too. The good old days (90s). I like some of the Kizzy Rock songs as well.
Bootyshake Music (I hate the term Miami Bass)Was a pretty fun sub genre of hip hop. Everyone could have fun to it. It was great for the skating rinks too. The good old days (90s). I like some of the Kizzy Rock songs as well.
Yeah it didn't help just Atlanta hip hop during that time. It helped Florida too. Didn't hurt that Famu and Bethune were down the street.
Didn't we already have a discussion thread on freaknik a few months back? What's with people starting these threads over and over. I do remember freaknik being out of control, especially at lenox area, had a friend working at a retail store there mid 90s and they literally had to shut the store down because the crowd was too rowdy and obviously not there to buy anything but trash the place and cause trouble with patrons and people in the area.
I will say the "bootyshaking music" was pretty fun to dance to especially in buckhead, 69 boyz, 95south and Come on ride dat train come to mind lol!
Well there is a certain element that people who are white were quicker to complain about the negative affects, as it wasn't really an event for them.
Inversely, I think for awhile some black people were trying to hold onto something special and were a bit ambitious at trying to defend the negatives.
For me at the time I was a young white kid. It didn't really affect me, but I did feel a sense of pride for Atlanta that something unique was going on here vs. somewhere else.
What ultimately did this event in when it grew so big, is it literally shut the whole city down for a week. For all the people who have moved here since, this can not be understated. It got to the point where Atlanta was a major business center that pretty much had to halt operations for one week.
Part of the problem was once the streets couldn't handle the traffic, the streets just became that party area and people intentionally wanted to cruise around and stay on the roads for the party and everything just clogged up. This was a pretty widespread effect.
If you do spring break at a beach, it is a long linear strip that over miles can hold many people and everyone wants to be on the beach. Yes, the roads get pretty bad, but ultimately people want to get to a beach.
Freaknik over-spilled into areas with no free space, except for the streets. This also meant it was hard to re-position resources to locations where things were getting out of control. The event was spread out and transportation was clogged.
Sure large events and many people bring money into the city, but that pales in comparison to the widespread losses from having to shut everything down. Other events can shut down cities, but it is often in smaller and mid-size cities where the financial benefits outweigh the losses.
That why I find this incredibly Ironic
Austin is known for it's collage students, live shows, 6 street and etc. There is no beach. but yet it pull off SXSW
I feel like Austin saw what was happening embrace it "keep austin weird" and got in front of it controlled it. In stead of embracing and shaping it Atlanta leaders ignored what was growing and it grow dis organized. So it was like a elephant in the room until the last minute. I don't view Freaknic separate I view it as part of the larger wave of Atlanta hip hop culture. Freaknic was just spring break but the local culture is why people came. "Atlanta" meant something culturally to the young. And the city didn't tap and stir the energy. So now basically Metro Atlanta Chamber go to Austin to leech off Austin cool factor, that irony. I think the city in general have wird relation with branding. "city lights southern nights"
I feel like Austin saw what was happening embrace it "keep austin weird" and got in front of it controlled it. In stead of embracing and shaping it Atlanta leaders ignored what was growing and it grow dis organized. So it was like a elephant in the room until the last minute. I don't view Freaknic separate I view it as part of the larger wave of Atlanta hip hop culture. Freaknic was just spring break but the local culture is why people came. "Atlanta" meant something culturally to the young. And the city didn't tap and stir the energy. So now basically Metro Atlanta Chamber go to Austin to leech off Austin cool factor, that irony. I think the city in general have wird relation with branding. "city lights southern nights"
I'm not so sure... This is very apples to oranges.
It might be more ironic if Atlanta felt the need to set up a booth in Panama City of Cancun for spring break.
I don't think the blame should be left to the City of Atlanta either.
Austin didn't do SXSW, A professional promoter working with other professional promoters did when they were seeking new products and SXSW took off. They rent a large amount of space in venues that easily handle the traffic and create large scale events where everyone wants to be. They have the proper crowd control.
It is worth noting that Atlanta holds conferences and events bigger than SXSW, perhaps not as publicly popular and many of them are private.
The success of SXSW comes down to the fact they found a unique product that people are willing to pay a large amount to go see. Those people are typically highly educated and have key intellectual talents. They aren't just college grads, but they are ones with more expendable income, already have a measured level of success, and are willing to pay lots of money to geek out on a conference dedicated to technological innovation (and emerging entertainment).
They are high value targets, not just millennials... not just college grads.
We could set up a booth in Panama City and see more future college grads/millennials easily.
But in the case of SXSW, and the reason I don't blame the City of Atlanta about Freaknik, is Austin didn't do -that- much. SXSW has very organized promoters bringing in people in a very structured environment. They rented space and they have the cash-flow from expensive tickets to make it work. As the event grew, they rented bigger space and brought in more entertainment to keep people at the event.
Sure large events generate temporary traffic, but they don't just sit around city-wide in the streets partying and "cruise." Yes, they do spill out the atmosphere into adjacent entertainment districts in the city, but they are not shutting Austin down.
In comparison, Freaknik had amateur organizers, without deep pockets that were very successful setting up what was meant to be a far smaller event. The concept exploded, but it did so without a singular event to handle the crowds, cash flow, ticketing, etc... Rather you had many coming to party in the streets and would never provide $400 in cashflow to purchase tickets to be able to rent out large amounts of space in the GWCC and keep people there and in parts of Downtown on foot.
The problem wasn't the city, the problem was the lack of professional promoters to do things you're accusing Atlanta of not doing. The problem was also the social choices of the Freaknik partiers. They succeeded in shutting down a large American city. They chose to create parties in the streets, as opposed to keeping things at contained events at proper venues. If anything they stretched the city's budget very thin, since the city had to pay for many crowd and traffic control measures with no extra income.
DragonCon is a local example.... There is room for the city to work with organized promoters. We can shut down a street for a few hours during a low-traffic period and hold a parade. We can have some limited traffic control measures to help a large event, but ultimately the event takes place in rented space in a single are for large amounts of people paying for tickets to help cover those costs. The event doesn't shut the city down.
They city didn't organize it, a professional promoter did.
Atlanta also only tried to shut down Freaknik after things got out of control and it was clear there was going to be no structure for a large amount of the people coming here. They supported it in the early years when it was a smaller event in a public park.
I'm not so sure... This is very apples to oranges.
It might be more ironic if Atlanta felt the need to set up a booth in Panama City of Cancun for spring break.
I don't think the blame should be left to the City of Atlanta either.
Austin didn't do SXSW, A professional promoter working with other professional promoters did when they were seeking new products and SXSW took off. They rent a large amount of space in venues that easily handle the traffic and create large scale events where everyone wants to be. They have the proper crowd control.
It is worth noting that Atlanta holds conferences and events bigger than SXSW, perhaps not as publicly popular and many of them are private.
The success of SXSW comes down to the fact they found a unique product that people are willing to pay a large amount to go see. Those people are typically highly educated and have key intellectual talents. They aren't just college grads, but they are ones with more expendable income, already have a measured level of success, and are willing to pay lots of money to geek out on a conference dedicated to technological innovation (and emerging entertainment).
They are high value targets, not just millennials... not just college grads.
We could set up a booth in Panama City and see more future college grads/millennials easily.
But in the case of SXSW, and the reason I don't blame the City of Atlanta about Freaknik, is Austin didn't do -that- much. SXSW has very organized promoters bringing in people in a very structured environment. They rented space and they have the cash-flow from expensive tickets to make it work. As the event grew, they rented bigger space and brought in more entertainment to keep people at the event.
Sure large events generate temporary traffic, but they don't just sit around city-wide in the streets partying and "cruise." Yes, they do spill out the atmosphere into adjacent entertainment districts in the city, but they are not shutting Austin down.
In comparison, Freaknik had amateur organizers, without deep pockets that were very successful setting up what was meant to be a far smaller event. The concept exploded, but it did so without a singular event to handle the crowds, cash flow, ticketing, etc... Rather you had many coming to party in the streets and would never provide $400 in cashflow to purchase tickets to be able to rent out large amounts of space in the GWCC and keep people there and in parts of Downtown on foot.
The problem wasn't the city, the problem was the lack of professional promoters to do things you're accusing Atlanta of not doing. The problem was also the social choices of the Freaknik partiers. They succeeded in shutting down a large American city. They chose to create parties in the streets, as opposed to keeping things at contained events at proper venues. If anything they stretched the city's budget very thin, since the city had to pay for many crowd and traffic control measures with no extra income.
DragonCon is a local example.... There is room for the city to work with organized promoters. We can shut down a street for a few hours during a low-traffic period and hold a parade. We can have some limited traffic control measures to help a large event, but ultimately the event takes place in rented space in a single are for large amounts of people paying for tickets to help cover those costs. The event doesn't shut the city down.
They city didn't organize it, a professional promoter did.
Atlanta also only tried to shut down Freaknik after things got out of control and it was clear there was going to be no structure for a large amount of the people coming here. They supported it in the early years when it was a smaller event in a public park.
Have you been to Austin?........................ 6th is wild. Austin has a large entertainment district that is zoning, the city embrace it for tourism and etc. The night life itself is better organized and zoned. 6 street is a block party, it's a street zone full of clubs, Other wise Austin could never have Freaknik situation cause city is more invested and better zoned for Night Life. Miami has Ocean Drive and etc LA has many but Sunset strip history is pretty famous. New Orleans has Bourbon and french Street. Seattle's capitol hill and etc. Memphis Beale Street.
You Have to think about it, Promoters have sponsors... in the 90's especially sponsor where hesitant to associate with urban culture. This made it harder for promoter to organize. Coke wasn't sponsoring Freaknik to help promoters Organize it better you feel me.
So let me restate my point as Freaknik grew it became beyond the control of promoters. And because there was no large central entertainment district. People traveled clogging roads going event to event or club to club across the city. Eventually people started party were they was at.
As Freaknik grew there should had been way more invest in Freaknik to help Organize. But this is not what happen. So as grew it became more dis organized. There's prejudice and elitism against younger African Americans I'm wasn't trying to defend the negatives of Freaknik but pointing out the double standards, Someone can't be against Freaknik and be for those EDM fest, SXSW, mardi gras for moral reasons.
You said Atlanta need a beach no Atlanta needs a large entertainment district.
Didn't we already have a discussion thread on freaknik a few months back? What's with people starting these threads over and over. I do remember freaknik being out of control, especially at lenox area, had a friend working at a retail store there mid 90s and they literally had to shut the store down because the crowd was too rowdy and obviously not there to buy anything but trash the place and cause trouble with patrons and people in the area.
I will say the "bootyshaking music" was pretty fun to dance to especially in buckhead, 69 boyz, 95south and Come on ride dat train come to mind lol!
All of that music was between 92-97 I am thinking. I know 2 Live was out before 92, but for a while it was them and MC Shy D that was doing it. There may have been some others, but prior to 91-92 I cant think of anyone else.
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