Hulu has made some Gen Xers anxious about the possibility of old VHS footage of them resurfacing because of the upcoming documentary Freaknik: The Wildest Party Never Told.
According to Hulu’s logline, the show “recounts the rise and fall of a small Atlanta HBCU picnic that exploded into an influential street party and spotlighted Atlanta as a major cultural stage. Can the magic of Freaknik be brought back 40 years later?”
Freaknik was a widely popular event but caused tension among attendees, Atlanta residents, and law enforcement, leading to traffic jams and various other crimes. In 1998, the Atlanta Committee for Black College Spring Break chairman said they could not support such events due to safety concerns. Crowd numbers decreased significantly the following year. Freaknik made a minor comeback in 2019 and smaller iterations in 2021 and 2022.
While Freaknik helped establish Atlanta as a cultural center, it was also renowned as a rager filled with college people and NSFW behavior. As word of the documentary spreads, several past attendees are wondering if old videos of them partying as teenagers will come out in the open.
Roy Wood Jr from The Daily Show joked about the situation by saying: “Bout to be a lot of divorces when that Freaknik doc drop. A couple pastors gone have to step down from the pulpit too.”
Bout to be a lot of divorces when that Freaknik doc drop. A couple pastors gone have to step down from the pulpit too.
— Roy Wood Jr- Ex Jedi (@roywoodjr) April 8, 2023
TikTok user Tina said in a viral video: “We might be in trouble.”
@femigog Boycott freaknik? 🤣🤣🤣🤣👀👀👀😩😩😩#freaknik94 #genx #genextiktokers ##noreceipts ♬ original sound – Tammie
She jokingly added: “I’ve been to several Freakniks — ’94 was one that I attended — so I’m just praying that Jesus be a fence. I’m praying that Jesus will be a big, tall privacy fence.”
She also said that she believes avoiding cameras frequently while she was at Freaknik will work in her favor when the documentary is released, “If you see your girl in the documentary, hey man, at least all my clothes are on,” she said. “That’s the best I got. Y’all, they ’bout to put our business out in the street. Some of us might be on TV, so get your parental controls together.”
A Twitter user had some good advice for those who attended Freakniks back then:
If you were on those Freaknik videos, just close out all your social media accts now b4 this Hulu Doc 🥴😩😵💫😆
— BadGirlChynna ♐ (@Chynna1220) April 10, 2023
Another user advised Freaknikers to hold on tight to their spouses and children once the documentary came out:
Some of y’all old heads better clutch on to your husbands/wives & children before this 94’ Freaknik documentary comes out on Hulu👀
— HAMM (@xotierrahamm) April 10, 2023
Tammie, another TikTok user whose video has also gone viral said that for a long time, Gen X was “the generation of no receipts” because there was no social media and the internet was not popularized until the late 1990s.
“We didn’t ask for this. We don’t want an exposé,” she said, adding that Gen X is not “the TikTok generation.”
@femigog Boycott freaknik? 🤣🤣🤣🤣👀👀👀😩😩😩#freaknik94 #genx #genextiktokers ##noreceipts ♬ original sound – Tammie
Talking to the media after her video went viral, Tammie said that she is actually surprised that the documentary being made is about Gen X. In her opinion, her generation is usually “overlooked or pretty much forgotten in conversations.” The TikToker, however, is not concerned about herself or anyone she knows appearing in the footage.
“Freaknik was a long time ago and we were young just trying to have fun. But lord have mercy, the ’90s were crazy because all of us latchkey kids were suddenly adults chronologically after kind of raising ourselves,” Tammie said, adding: “Freaknik was a bit of a reflection of that.”
A former Freaknik attendee believes that the past should remain in the past and said:
@hulu what exactly is the purpose of showing what happened at #Freaknik? We were young & free & we have families now with adult children who don't need to see their moms twerking on top of cars & doing strange things with strangers! You all could've atleast blurred faces out😤 pic.twitter.com/4dZ3gLl6KZ
— Purple.Dreams.904 (@904Dreams) April 10, 2023
Gen Z, on the other hand, is half excited to see their parents’ generation do some questionable things on tape:
found out my mom was at Freaknik ‘94 and i just know they caught her on camera doing some dumb shit in this doc coming out on hulu LMAO
— Deziree Dixon (@dezdixonn_) April 10, 2023
Some are also dreading the same notion:
I’m scared to watch that Freaknik documentary on Hulu cause I feel like Imma see my daddy in it 😬😬😬😬
— Slobbin Givens 🌈🦄🇩🇴🇧🇧 (@the_shugavery) April 10, 2023
There are others who simply want no surprises:
@hulu got me shaking down the family group chat 😩 I don’t want no surprises lmao #Freaknik #Freaknik94 pic.twitter.com/NaBzZwj5Xe
— Juh-ha-ruh (@concreterose90) April 10, 2023
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Another rising debate on social media surrounds the question of whether the documentary will address the downside of Freaknik, including incidents of serious crimes and even sexual assault.
Nika Watkins, a woman who attended Freaknik from 1995 to 1997, has come out to say that some women faced sexual harassment at the festival.
“Walking thru Lenox Square might cause you to get violated — your ass smacked or a boob grabbed. I don’t want to say all dudes were like that, but there were some overly aggressive hounds lurking around down there,” she had said in an interview in April 2013. “I heard stories about women being raped which is really upsetting to hear about. That’s really sad to me that things went that far.”
While many media outlets have reached out to Hulu, the platform has not yet commented on any of the questions that have arisen as a result of the raging debate on social media about the documentary at the moment.
A release date for Freaknik: The Wildest Party Never Told has not been announced by the streaming service but here’s how you can watch it on Hulu outside US.
