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The Home Depot Backyard officially begins its fitness classes in the Spring but that doesn’t mean that programming remains dormant. The sixth annual Fitness on the Field event, which is The Home Depot Backyard’s response to the challenges of exercising outdoors during the winter months, took place inside Mercedes-Benz Stadium on January 6-7, 2025, with highly anticipated wellness programs occurring across two days. Welcoming over 9,000 registrants, this free event focused on providing affordable health and wellness opportunities for enthusiasts of all experience levels while providing attendees a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to get fit on an NFL (Atlanta Falcons) and MLS (Atlanta United) field. Additionally, the six 45-minute sessions represented an opportunity for The Home Depot Backyard to showcase its instructors and the free weekly health and wellness programming that runs annually in the outdoor space. The event also featured live DJs, immersive photo activations, and a live podcast experience.
Actively Black, a Black-owned athleisure brand, served as the event’s presenting partner, providing several activations including giveaways, photo booth, a pop-up apparel shop, and a recovery massage lounge. Gatorade also activated during the event with their Gatorade Zero beverage line. Every attendee was offered complimentary beverages at the Gatorade branded tent, providing the partner with optimal brand visibility. Additionally, The Home Depot Backyard furthered its commitment to championing diverse and equitable community partnerships by collaborating with several Black-owned businesses within the wellness industry, including an apparel brand.
Day one featured three sessions of wellness offerings with some of the region’s top fitness experts. The first was a Zumba inspired class titled Enervibes Dance Fit with Tani Gordon, which was geared to get the audience moving. Following that experience was a class called Trap Boxing led by Mike Starr, which paired full-body boxing training with classic southern hip-hop hits. The final class of the evening was Maxx Out Fitness, which focused on maximum movement through rhythmic motion, led by Darrell ‘DP’ Patterson. The final session of day one, and opening session of day two, also featured a surprise musical performance from the hip-hop group F.L.Y. – performing their hit song ‘Swag Surf’ – while thousands in attendance performed the song’s iconic dance, “Swag Surfin”.
In addition to the music performance, day two featured a trio of wellness instructors. The first session was Body Blast with DJ Bostick, a unique H.I.I.T. workout that incorporates bricks into the regimen. Following this class was Royal Physique Bootcamp, a full body work out tailored for participants across all fitness levels, with instructor Lah King, who treated participants to another surprise musical performance when he was joined on stage by hip hop artist Mykko Montana. Following that experience was a Hip-Hop Yoga class led by Jaimee Ratliff, which paired traditional yoga movements with a soundtrack of the top Hip-Hop and R&B hits.
As a result, The Home Depot Backyard experienced two ‘sold out’ nights and exposed more than 75% of participants to their first Fitness on the Field experience. Additionally, attendees were educated on our free weekly programming offered throughout the year while being introduced to accessible resources within the health and wellness industry.
Nomination Title: 2025 Fitness on the Field at Mercedes-Benz Stadium
