ATLANTA — Less than a week after announcing the return of FreakNik and the event’s expansion to three days, the music festival is looking for a new home.
Last week, plans were announced that FreakNik would be held June 19-21 at the Cascade Driving Range in southwest Atlanta.
But, Carlos Neal of Atlanta-based After 9, the promotion company behind the FreakNik revival, said Tuesday that he has been told the contract he signed with Cascade Driving Range in December is no longer valid, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports.
Neal said his agreement was made with Samuel Tompkins, identified as an owner of the driving range. But when the “true owner” was made aware of the event after it was publicized last week, “they said Mr. Tompkins did not have the authority to sign off on an agreement for an event. I think they took a look at the popularity of FreakNik and the advance sales and said, ‘You know what? Sorry, but not sorry.’ It’s unfortunate, because I wanted to keep the dollars in the black community.”
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Douglas Crawford, co-managing partner of Grey Partners LLC, which owns Cascade Driving Range, confirmed to the AJC that “the document didn’t become known to the owner of the property” until recently and would only say that it was “an invalid contract.”
Neal maintains that Tompkins – who declined to comment - has booked more than 25 events at the driving range during his long tenure there. Now Neal is forced to relocate after months of negotiating with area businesses including Changing a Generation Full Gospel Baptist Church and Greenbriar Mall for parking space for attendees.
FreakNik started in 1983. It was a small gathering then, but over the years and into the '90s, hundreds of thousands of people came from all over the country to the big event.
The community became outraged over huge parties, chaos in the streets and crime.
In the '90s, then-Mayor Bill Campbell’s staff made a big decision to stop FreakNik.
By 2010, then-Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed banned any FreakNik-related activities from being staged within the city, and a hallmark of Atlanta revelry disappeared.
The festival returned last year in a more family-friendly form, endorsing inclusiveness and a safe environment.
A lineup featuring Project Pat, Uncle Luke, Da Brat, Foxy Brown and many more nearly sold out the Cellairis Amphitheatre at Lakewood and attracted an adult audience old enough to remember the rambunctious FreakNiks of the past, but young enough to still party responsibly.
Organizers said the festival will still take place this summer as planned. For information about tickets for this year’s FreakNik festival, CLICK HERE.
Melissa Ruggieri with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution contributed to this article.