Zombie walk

A zombie walk (also known as a zombie mob, zombie march, zombie horde, zombie lurch, zombie shamble, zombie shuffle, zombie monsta-mash, zombie irrigation, zombie hurricane or zombie crawl) is an organized public gathering of people who dress up in zombie costumes. Usually taking place in an urban center, the participants make their way around the city streets and through shopping malls to a public space (or a series of taverns in the case of a zombie pub crawl) in a somewhat orderly fashion.

Contents

Customs

Zombie walks have become relatively common in large cities, especially in North America, often becoming annual traditions, though some are also spontaneous "flash mob" events[2][3] or performance art. Promoted primarily through word of mouth and online message boards, zombie walks are an underground activity. During the event participants are encouraged to remain in character as zombies and to communicate only in a manner consistent with zombie behavior. This may include grunting, groaning and slurred, moaning calls for 'brains'. Zombie behavior is a hot topic of debate. Purists who draw their definitions from the original Romero Living Dead films will claim that a zombie would never have the ability to call for 'brains' and furthermore that a zombie needs only living or freshly killed flesh for its sustenance, and not the brain in particular.

The complexity and purpose of some zombie walks have grown and changed with their popularity. An advanced technique to heighten interest and realism, some zombie mobs will "eat" victims to create new zombies, in sight of onlookers.[4] The better coordinated zombie mobs will establish a route and an easily recognizable signal, so that other participants can plant themselves, appearing as an otherwise ordinary human, along the route in old, tearable clothes, and as the mob shambles along it can discover and devour new victims. As the zombies surround the new victim to loudly feed, concealing him or her from witnesses' view, they tear clothes and quickly apply makeup and fake blood, to create a new zombie, who then shambles along with the ever-expanding pack to find new victims. Some participants occasionally dress up as soldiers who are called in to contain the outbreak, or survivors who are trying to defend themselves from the onslaught of the zombie horde. Some events are staged as spoof political rallies organized "to raise awareness of zombie rights", with participants carrying placards.[5] Many zombie walks have also been staged as "hunger marches" with the intent of raising awareness of world hunger and collecting items for food banks.[6][7]

History

The earliest zombie walk on record was held on August 19, 2001 in Sacramento, California.[8][9] The event, billed as "The Zombie Parade," was the brain-child of Bryna Lovig, who suggested it to the organizers of The Trash Film Orgy[10] as a way to promote their annual midnight film festival. It was held again on July 27, 2002 and has since become an annual event.[11]

The first zombie gathering run as a non-promotional event and billed as a "Zombie Walk" was held in October 2003, in Toronto, Ontario.[12] It was organized by local horror movie fan, Thea Munster, and had only six participants.[13] In subsequent years the Toronto Zombie Walk grew tremendously in size.[14][15] One of the first participants in the Toronto Zombie Walk, Heather McDermid, moved to Vancouver, B.C. and spread the zombie walk tradition to that city.[16] On August 27, 2005 over 400 participants proceeded through Vancouver's Pacific Centre Mall, travelled on the SkyTrain (referred to for the event as the "SkyBrain" or the "BrainTrain") and continued 35 blocks to Mountain View Cemetery.[17]

The mid to late 2000s saw an exponential gain in popularity for zombie walks due largely to the increase of successful zombie films at the time, the Resident Evil movies, 28 Days Later, Zack Snyder's Dawn of the Dead, Shaun of the Dead, George A. Romero's Land of the Dead, and Zombieland being a few examples. Documentation of the phenomenon appeared in mainstream news media[18] and blogs, such as Boingboing. Zombie walks soon spread across North America and to cities around the globe, such as Mar del Plata, Argentina.[19]

On October 29, 2006, 894 "zombie walkers" gathered at the Monroeville Mall outside of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, which served as the set of George A. Romero's classic zombie film Dawn of the Dead, to participate in Pittsburgh's first annual 'Walk of the Dead.'[20] In addition to setting a Guinness World Record, the event was a benefit for the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank. Pittsburgh's zombie walk has since grown into an annual horror festival called Zombie Fest. Zombie Fest is organized by The It's Alive Show, a local Pittsburgh late night horror and science fiction television program.[21] The Pittsburgh festival plays host to the annual 'Walk of the Dead' as well as a zombie ball, costume contest, concerts, and celebrity guest appearances. Zombie Fest also serves as the headquarters of The It's Alive Show's World Zombie Day, a world hunger charity event.[22]

Zombie walks are also a regular occurrence at ZomBcon, "The World's First Zombie Convention." ZomBcon takes place every October in Seattle, Washington. Apart from zombie walks, ZomBcon also features panel discussions with zombie authors, actors, and artists, workshops, film screenings, and other activities for zombie fans.[23] ZomBcon also organizes Seattle's annual ‘Red, White, and Dead’ zombie walk every July.[24]

World records

The first zombie walk world record was set on October 29, 2006 at Monroeville Mall outside of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania during Pittsburgh's first annual 'Walk of the Dead.' Guinness World Records certified that 894 people participated in the walk.[20] The second zombie walk at Monroeville Mall during the 2007 Zombie Fest was also verified by Guinness World Records as the largest gathering of zombies to date (October 28, 2007), with 1,028 participants.[25]

The 2007 Toronto Zombie Walk drew a crowd of over 1,100 zombies, a number confirmed by Toronto Police Services.[12] At the time, this was the largest zombie walk on record.[26]

A zombie march in Brisbane on May 25, 2008 set an unofficial record of over 1,500 participants according to media reports.[27]

On June 21, 2008, a zombie march took place in Chicago with over 1,550 zombies estimated, setting a new unofficial record.[28]

On October 30, 2008, Grand Rapids, Michigan, became the largest site of zombies anywhere in the world when around 4,000 zombies showed up to a zombie walk organized by Grand Rapids Community College student, Rob Bliss. Bliss organized the walk on Facebook but due to cost and application issues he was unable to get the walk certified by Guinness World Records.[29]

On 31 October 2008, a zombie walk took place in the Old Market Square of Nottingham with 1,227 attendees. The event was organized by GameCity, and the zombies did dances to zombie-related songs such as Michael Jackson's "Thriller", "Disturbia" and "Ghostbusters". There was also a performance from American singer Jonathan Coulton. The event achieved a new official Guinness World Record for largest zombie walk.[30]

In June 2009, Pittsburgh zombie fans won back the Guinness World Record after Guinness verified that the October 26, 2008 Zombie Fest 'Walk of the Dead' at Monroeville Mall had 1,341 participating walkers.[31]

On July 3, 2009, a zombie walk organized by Fremont Outdoor Movies in Seattle, Washington beat all previous zombie walk records. Guinness World Records officially recorded 3,894 zombies at the 'Red, White and Dead' zombie event,[32] though local news claimed 4,277 participants.[33][34]

In October 2009 Guinness World Records officially recorded and approved a new record for the largest gathering of zombies. The record was set at ‘The Big Chill Festival’ in Ledbury, Herefordshire on August 6, 2009. There were 4,026 zombie mob participants.[35]

On October 25, 2009 the biggest recorded gathering of zombies in the Southern Hemisphere occurred in Brisbane with over 5,000 participants reportedly in attendance as reported by the Queeensland Police. The walk was also a charity event helping to raise awareness and money for the aptly chosen organization, The Brain Foundation of Australia.[36]

On October 30, 2009, zombie walkers in Grand Rapids, Michigan attempted a second run at the zombie mob world record. An estimated 8,000 participants braved rainy weather to gather in Calder Plaza outside of Grand Rapids's City and County buildings. The event was coordinated by Rob Bliss, organizer of Grand Rapids' first zombie walk. Approximately forty to fifty volunteers collected signatures from the crowd. The record is currently unverified by Guinness World Records.[37]

Organizers of the fifth annual 'Denver Zombie Crawl' in Denver, Colorado counted more than 7,300 zombie walkers in the event. This is considered to be a low figure as up to 1/3 of the total participants did not walk through the counter. The crawl took place on October 23, 2010 in downtown Denver at the 16th Street Mall.[38][39] On October 24, 2010 a reported 10,000 strong zombie walk took place in Brisbane. As with previous years, the event raised money for the Brain Foundation of Australia.[40] Guinness has yet to officially recognize either event as the new world record.

Guinness officially recognized a new record for the world's largest gathering of zombies on October 30, 2010 at the 3rd annual New Jersey Zombie Walk on the Asbury Park Boardwalk in Asbury Park, New Jersey. Guinness recorded 4,093 zombies at the event, though organizers along with police and fire officials estimate more than 5,000 zombies were in attendance.[41]

In July 2011, more cities would attempt to break the zombie gathering Guinness world record held by Asbury Park, New Jersey. On July 2, 2011 Seattle, Washington attempted to take back the record at the 3rd annual Fremont "Red, White and Dead"[42] Zombie Walk Hosted by Fremont Outdoor Movies. The zombie count according to Fremont organizers was 4,522[43] in attendance with estimations of over 4,800-5000 after the official stop point for counting zombies. Representatives from Guinness did not attend the event. On July 23, 2011 The Dublin Zombie Walk [44] in Dublin, Ireland had an estimated 8,000 Zombies in attendance, but confirmation is still pending from Guinness World Records.

October 2011 also saw multiple attempts to break The New Jersey Zombie Walk's Guinness world record for largest zombie gathering. On October 8, 2011 the unofficial count for the Pittsburgh "World Zombie Day" Zombie Walk was 4,900 Zombies.[45] Over 7,000 zombies are believed to have attended the 9th Annual Toronto Zombie Walk on October 22.[46] Both the annual 'Denver Zombie Crawl' on October 22[47] and the annual 'Brisbane Zombie Walk' on October 23[48] claim to have had over 12,000 zombie participants. Guinness has yet to officially recognize a new world record for largest gathering of zombies.

October 29, 2011—The first zombie walk in the Philippines was held in Baguio city by Magnum Artistry (formerly flicklub) spearheaded by Carl Paolo Zobel and Porta Vaga. Over a hundred zombies and hundreds of spectators participated in the event. The zombies danced to zombie related music as choreographed by the Philippine dance group 'DNZ Team' (who also performed the first zombie flashmob dance in the Philippines October 16, 2011).

In November 2011, Mexico broke a new world record for largest zombie gathering. Guinness officially counted 9,806 participants, surpassing the previous record established by Asbury Park, New Jersey.[49]

Charity

Charity work continues to be a common component at zombie walks across the planet.[50][51][52] Community service organizations have used zombie walks as demonstrations to raise funds and awareness for local and global issues, such as world hunger.[6][29][53][54]

Both world record walks at Pittsburgh's Zombie Fest have included food drives. In 2008, The It's Alive Show (the organizers of Zombie Fest), initiated World Zombie Day.[7] The It's Alive Show encouraged cities all over the globe to celebrate World Zombie Day by holding zombie walks to raise awareness of global hunger. The first World Zombie Day took place October 26, 2008; the same day as Pittsburgh's Zombie Fest. More than 30 cities worldwide took part in this day of global zombie walking. Food drives for local hunger-related charities took place at each participating city's zombie walk. Pittsburgh's walk alone brought in more than one ton of food to benefit the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank.[55] The second World Zombie Day took place October 11, 2009 with even more participation from cities all over the world.[7]

Controversy

Due to the spontaneous and naturally chaotic nature of a zombie uprising, some zombie walks have been host to criticism.

On October 31, 2006, a young woman in Bloomington, Indiana reported to police that a group of "zombies" attacked her in her Land Rover and covered the vehicle in "purple goo". The zombies in question turned out to be participants in a small, local zombie walk, and no arrests were made.[56]

At the 2006 Vancouver Zombie Walk, an incident occurred in which an impatient driver attempted to drive his car through a crowd of zombies headed down Robson St. This resulted in some minor injuries among the zombies, severe damage to the car, a number of insurance claims, and coverage on CBC Television.[57]

On May 1, 2010, the annual Zombie Shuffle in Melbourne saw the largest attendance in its five year history, but some locals complained of the mess that the zombie "gore" left behind as well as the walk's disruption of a play for preschoolers.[58]

Pub crawl variant

Some zombie walks incorporate pub crawling, during which participants visit multiple bars over the course of the walk.

On October 15, 2005, the first large-scale zombie pub crawl was held in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The crawl consisted of roughly 150 zombie-costumed participants moving from bar to bar in the city's Northeast district. The Minneapolis 'Zombie Pub Crawl' has since become an annual event and attendance has grown exponentially. Each year it takes place in a different area of the city.[59] Similar large-scale, zombie-themed pub crawls have developed in New Orleans,[60] Providence, Reno, Nevada, Houston, Chicago,[61] and Philadelphia.[62] Philadelphia's zombie pub crawl is held on Easter Sunday in celebration of "the world's most famous zombie". Zombie pub crawls are now a regular occurrence in cities all over the world.

On Halloween weekend in 2007, the Viking Hats group put together the largest zombie pub crawl in London. London's Zombie Pub Crawl is now an annual Halloween weekend event.

See also

References

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External links