Zombie walk

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A zombie walk (also known as a zombie mob, zombie march, zombie horde, zombie lurch, zombie shamble, zombie shuffle or zombie pub crawl) is an organized public gathering of people who dress up in zombie costumes. Usually taking place in an urban centre, the participants make their way around the city streets and through shopping malls in a somewhat orderly fashion and often limping their way towards a local cemetery or other public space (a series of taverns in the case of a zombie pub crawl).

Contents 1 Customs 2 History 3 Charity events 4 See also 5 References 6 External links

[edit] 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.^[1] 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'. It should be noted that zombie behavior is a hot topic of debate. Purists who draw their definitions from the original 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.

An advanced technique to heighten interest and realism, some zombie mobs will "eat" victims to create new zombies, in sight of onlookers. ^[2] 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 events are staged as spoof political rallies organized "to raise awareness of zombie rights", with participants carrying placards.^[3]

[edit] History

The earliest zombie walk on record ^[4] was held in August, 2001 in Sacramento, California. 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 ^[5] as a way to promote their annual midnight film festival. It was held again in July, 2002 ^[6] and has since become an annual event.

Another early zombie walk was held in October, 2003, in Toronto, Ontario.^[7] It was organized by local horror movie fan Thea Munster, and had only six participants.^[8] The 2007 Toronto Zombie Walk drew a crowd of over 1,100 zombies, a number confirmed by Toronto Police Services.^[7] At the time, this was the largest zombie walk on record.

In 2005 a series of zombie mobs swept North America, as documentation of the phenomenon appeared on mainstream blogs like Boingboing. On July 30, 2005 San Francisco was visited by approximately 75 zombies who entertained tourists around Union Square, and played dead on the BART train. ^[9] Another widely documented zombie walk occurred in Vancouver, B.C., on August 27, 2005, with over 400 participants. That walk proceeded through the 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.^[10]

On October 15, 2005, the first annual Zombie Pub Crawl was held in Minneapolis. The event consisted of roughly 100-150 zombie-costumed participants moving from bar to bar in the city's Northeast district, and has since grown and been continued annually in different areas of the city.^[11]

On October 29, 2006, 894 participants gathered at the Monroeville Mall in Pittsburgh, which served as the set of the classic zombie film Dawn of the Dead.^[12] In addition to setting a Guinness World Record, the event was a benefit for the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank. In 2007, the people of Pittsburgh broke their record with over 1000 zombies at the same mall, during their all weekend zombie festival.^[13] A zombie march in Brisbane, Australia on May 25, 2008 set an unofficial record of over 1500 participants according to media reports.^[14] On June 21, 2008, a zombie march took place in Chicago with a reported of over 1,550 zombies, setting a new unofficial record.^{[citation needed]}

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.^[15]

At the 2006 Vancouver Zombiewalk, an incident occurred in which a driver attempted to push his way through the crowd of zombies that was headed down Robson St. This resulted in some minor injuries among the zombies, severe damage to the car, a number of ICBC insurance claims, and coverage on CBC Television.^[16]

A zombie walk in Brisbane on the May 25, 2008 saw more than 1,500 participants stopping traffic and shoppers in the CBD. Local newspapers failed to mention the event, in a bid to stop it from continuing, after several businesses complained about minor "zombie damage" and zombies scaring their customers away.^{[citation needed]}

Close to 50 cities worldwide participated in World Zombie Day on October 26, 2008. Final totals are still being compiled but the preliminary results with 32 cities reporting are that 7,500 zombies participated in the event, which also included food drives in each participating city. The event was created and coordinated by The It's Alive Show, a weekly television program broadcast in Pittsburgh, PA. The Pittsburgh walk, held at the Monroeville Mall, had 1,341 people participating and has been certified by Guinness as the new official world record.^[17] The It's Alive Show's second annual World Zombie Day is scheduled for October 10, 2009.

On October 30, 2008, Grand Rapids, Michigan, became the largest site of zombies anywhere in the world. Even though the official tally was at 3,370 zombies, well over 4,000+ zombies showed up to this event. They were also asked to donated canned goods to a local food bank. Grand Rapids shattered the former world record of 1,375 zombies.^[18]

A zombie walk took place on 31 October, 2008 in the Old Market Square of Nottingham, United Kingdom with 1227 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.^[19]

A second Chicago zombie march took place on June 13, 2009. Estimates of attendance range from 1000 to over 1500 at its highest point. The march was seen attempting to enter Navy Pier but was turned away by security personnel.

Since 2007 annual zombie walks are organized in june by a group of students in Warsaw, Poland. Next one is scheduled on the 27th. Polish ZW officials claim the event to be both a gathering of zombie enthusiasts as well as a statement against lack of opportunities made by the city for the youth to spent time in a creative way. Numbers of zombies doubles every year, and in 2009 even some foreign contestants from Latvia and Ukraine.

On 3 July 2009, a zombie walk in the Fremont neighboorhood of Seattle broke the previous record set by Grand Rapids. Appropriately perhaps, the zombie walk took place at the foot of the famous Statue of Lenin. Guinness World Records officially recorded 3,894 zombies^[20], though local news claimed 4,277 participants^[21].

Houston, TX's first zombie walk occurred on October 25th, 2008. With little promotion, exactly 100 individuals participated raising 237 meals for the Houston Food Bank.

On October 30th 2009, Grand Rapids broke the record of Seattle with more than 8000 zombies participating in the walk. Rob Bliss, the organizer of the event, estimated to local news stations that nearly 10,000 participants were there and participating; he said it could even possibly be closer to 12,000.

On November 14th 2009, a zombie lurch called the Epic Zombie Lurch was held in Sydney, Australia^[22]. The lurch was organised by local video gamers in protest of the lack of an R18+ rating for video games in Australia, which had resulted in the initial rejection and revision of the game Left 4 Dead 2. The march started in Hyde Park and went around the Sydney CBD area before finishing at Town Hall for a public forum of people's opinions on the lack of the rating. It is estimated that roughly 170 people were in attendance. Another lurch is being planned for February 2010 if the rating has not been introduced by this time.

Halloween 2009 also saw the first inaugural Glasgow Zombie Walk (Scotland); from the University's Queen Margaret Union to the confines of Kelvin Park. The event was attended by around 300 of the cities undead inhabitants, spanning all ages. The walk was the brainchild of Zombie enthusiast and Lord, Colin "Stan" Armstrong who outlined the plan for the day: "Bringing out said zombie involves shambling, crawling, dragging or indeed walking like your average pedestrian through the west end…But, you know, dressed as a zombie."

[edit] Charity events

Both world record walks at the Monroeville Mall have included food drives. On October 26, 2008, the Monroeville organizers hosted World Zombie Day to raise awareness of global hunger. More than 40 cities worldwide signed up for this day of global zombie walks with food drives for local hunger related charities.

The 2008 Pittsburgh/Monroeville Mall zombie walk brought in more than one ton of food to benefit the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank.^[23] The results for World Zombie Day are still being compiled, but last total was 4,153 pounds of food and more than $2,300 in cash donations for food banks in the 32 cities that participated in WZD.

On October 30, 2008 in the city of Grand Rapids, Michigan, over 7,500+ cans of food were donated to a local food bank.

In Houston, TX ^[24] on October 25th, 2008, for the first annual zombie walk, 100 participants showed up and shambled down Westheimer Road raising 237 meals for the Houston Food Bank.

On August 26th 2009, San Jose based comics publisher SLG Publishing] http://www.slgcomic.com sponsored a zombie crawl, called the Zombie-O-Rama - http://www.zombieorama.com, to coincide with an outdoor showing of Shaun of the Dead by the San Jose Downtown Association. The event collected canned food for the Second Harvest Food Bank of Santa Clara County http://www.secondharvestfood.org. Over 1,000 people participated.

August 8 2009, official world record gathering of zombies at the Chill Festival in the UK, with 4026 zombies counted.

[edit] See also

Zombies Overview Zombies in popular culture Zombie apocalypse Zombie walk Zombies in media Movies Video games Literature  This box: view • talk • edit

• Flash mob
• Subway party
• SantaCon
• Cacophony Society

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Zombiewalk.com
• International Zombie awareness day (IZAD)
• Crawl of the Dead - Zombie Walks & Community Site
• Terror4Fun - UK zombie events
• Zombie Pub Crawl
• Zombie Walk Houston
• Deep Ellum Zombie Crawl - Dallas, TX
• Zombie Crawl San Jose, CA
• Richmond Zombie Walk - Richmond, VA
• Zombie Walk Detroit - Metro Detroit area, MI
• Ithaca Zombie Walk - Ithaca, NY
• Brisbane Australia Zombie Walk - Brisbane, Qld