The Atlanta Greek Picnic Is Celebrating Its 20th Anniversary This Year

Atlanta Greek Picnic is back this year and will celebrate its 20th anniversary. Hosted at Morris Brown College it is set to take place from June 25 to June 30.

The event will include performances by artists Brie, Noochie, Dominae, Swift and Fast Life Yungstaz. It will also feature the “AGP Cares Corner,” a space in which attendees will have access to complimentary mental health chats with licensed therapists.

The step show, which is one of the mainstays of AGP, was canceled this year, the organization announced on June 11. Rickey Smiley was originally set to host the event, while Juvenile was scheduled to perform.

AGP draws in over 25,000 people each year and generates an estimated $3.5 million, according to Andscape .

Tiwa Williams, the president and founder of AGP, said his motivation for organizing the event was to “advance a demographic of highly educated and extremely influential audience with networking, unity, a unique and fun experience once a year,” according to Andscape.

Although AGP features celebrations, the organization also hosts an annual networking event and community service, which Williams said is “an instrumental piece of our weekend to be able to give back to our community and to leave it better than we found it.” The organization has also sponsored entrepreneurial events in the past like Plug ATL’s pitch competition.

Williams created AGP in 2004 after being inspired by the Kappa Luau in Tallahassee, Florida, which he said was the largest gathering of Greeks in the South at the time. Between 200 to 300 people attended the inaugural AGP event. Attendance grew and by 2009, it drew in around 3,000 people.

“The truth is, prior to enrolling at my alma mater, Georgia Southwestern State University, I had zero knowledge of what black Greek culture was,” Williams told Andscape. “This was very intriguing to a young British-born Nigerian kid who had just moved to America from an all-boys Catholic boarding school in Bath, England, to see these students were part of an apparent huge Greek-lettered organization with decades of history on a university campus in south Georgia.”

His interest in Greek life grew and Williams eventually joined Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity Inc.

“Kappa challenged me to be a better person, a better student, a better leader and a better citizen of the world,” he said. “Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity Inc. wasn’t just the coolest, smoothest and most successful brothers that were around, but they uplifted everyone, including other fraternities, and to me that meant a lot.”