Information about Zombie Walk

A zombie walk (also known as a zombie mob, zombie march or zombie lurch) is an organized public gathering of two or more 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.

Customs

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 actually 'eat' victims to create new zombies, in sight of horrified onlookers. The better coordinated zombie mobs will establish a route and an easily recognizable signal, so that participants can plant themselves as 'civilians' (ie not zombies yet) along the route in old tearable clothes, and as the mob shambles along it can continually discover and 'devour' new victims. As the zombies surround the new victim to loudly 'feed', concealing him/her from witnesses' view, they tear clothes and quickly apply greenish makeup and fake blood, to create a new zombie, who then shambles along with the ever-expanding pack to find new victims.

History

One of the first zombie walks was held in October 2003, in Toronto, Ontario, with 6 participants.^[1] By 2005, zombie mobs had spread to several North American cities and some had gotten quite large. On July 30, 2005 San Francisco was invaded by approximately 200 zombies who terrorized tourists around Union Square, and played dead on the BART train. ^[2] 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. ^[3]



In the largest zombie walk to date, 894 participants gathered at the Monroeville Mall in Pittsburgh, which served as the set of the classic zombie film Dawn of the Dead, on October 29, 2006.^[4] In addition to setting a Guinness World Record, the event was a benefit for the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank.

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.^[5]

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.^[6]

Charity events

Organizations like Zombie Squad have used zombie walks to raise awareness for community service events being sponsored such as food drive and blood drives. This is normally associated with blood drives for the American Red Cross as a play on the spread of zombie infection through blood contact as popularized in films such as the 2004 remake of Dawn of the Dead and George A. Romero's Land of the Dead .

See also

• Flash mob
• Subway party
• SantaCon
• Cacophony Society

References

External links

• Zombiewalk.com
• Terror4Fun - UK zombie events
• german Website about Zombie Walks
• A recent Detroit zombie walk