(WSB Radio) -- Could the spring break festival of students from historically black colleges and universities known as 'Freaknik' planning a return to Atlanta in 2010?
The website "FREAKNIK Atlanta" says yes. City leaders say 'absolutely not."
Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed said, "I don't believe it will materialize and it's not my intention for the city to be supportive of it."
The website says the event will be held April 16-18 in Washington Park. The city says no permits have been issued for any public events in the park for those dates.
City Councilman Kwanza Hall tells WSB he doesn't think there's time.
"I think it's almost probably too late to try to pull something off because of the time frame of the applications that are due," said Hall.
"That move to try to go to black college spring break or weekend - it was a valiant attempt, but it needed a little bit more structure," said Hall.
With the economic times we're in, we should still consider all options.
"I thinks it's very challenging right now with all the public safety concerns that we've had, if any group were to bring something back that looks anywhere near like we saw in the last few years of Freaknik's existence," said Hall.
"My colleagues as well as myself and the mayor would not be hasty to support an initiative without very, very serious scrutiny," said Hall.
Freaknik dates back to 1983 when it was a small picnic for college students who could not afford to go home during spring break.
However, the event grew larger each year with tens of thousands of students descending on the city, cruising and causing major gridlock on highways and surface streets.
The spring break festival last visited Atlanta in 1999 after the city and police imposed major restrictions on the event.
