Zombie walk
Participants usually meet in an urban center and make their way around the city streets and public spaces (or a series of taverns in the case of a zombie pub crawl) in an orderly fashion.
Zombie walks can be organized simply for entertainment or with a purpose, such as setting a world record or promoting a charitable cause.
[1] 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.
[3] The earliest zombie walk styled event on record was put together rather last-minute at the Gen Con gaming convention in Milwaukee in August 2000.
The event was created to poke good-natured fun at the Vampire: The Masquerade LARPers that were taking over large portions of the convention, and disrupt their games.
While it was rumored that the organizers were arrested and thrown out of the convention for their flash mob of zombies, they were simply questioned by security before being told to disband.
[14] Despite the film festival's change of venue, TFO continues the walk as part of a free all-ages event, the "Carnival of the Dead", which includes food trucks from local vendors, make up stations, live bands, contests, games, and a projected movie in the park at the end of the night.
[15][16][17] The streets in downtown Sacramento comprising the walk's route are shut down by the city in order to safely accommodate the large numbers of participants.
[18] The first gathering specifically billed as a "Zombie Walk" occurred in October 2003 in Toronto,[19] organized by local horror movie fan Thea Munster and with only seven participants.
In subsequent years, the Toronto Zombie Walk has grown tremendously in size, with the 2014 event playing host to more than 15,000 participants.
[23] 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.
Zombie walks soon spread across North America and to cities around the globe, such as Mar del Plata, Argentina.
[27] In addition to setting a Guinness World Record, the event was a benefit for the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank.
The event was organized by GameCity, and the zombies did dances to zombie-related songs such as "Thriller", "Disturbia", and "Ghostbusters", and featured a performance from American singer Jonathan Coulton.
An estimated 8,000 participants braved rainy weather to gather in Calder Plaza outside of Grand Rapids City and County buildings.
By night's end, an estimated 14,000 participants had taken over the entirety of the downtown area, breaking local business sales records and all but shutting down traffic for hours.
[59] In October 19, 2013 an estimated 15,000 Chileans took to the streets of Santiago to take part in the city's fourth annual Zombie Walk.
[68] Similar large-scale zombie-themed pub crawls have developed in New Orleans,[69] Providence, Rhode Island, Reno, Houston, Eau Claire, Chicago,[70] Winona,[71] and Philadelphia.
[76] In 2007, zombies used bicycles to travel around town in the initial Ride of the Living Dead event in Kenosha, Wisconsin.
An offshoot of the non-zombie summer Handlebars and Bars bicycle pub crawl, this event began with about 40 riders in its debut, and has since grown exponentially.
In 2014, the event attracted over 400 zombie bicyclists and featured indie-rock bands from the Milwaukee-Chicago corridor as entertainment throughout the day.
[80] In 2011 and 2012, participants in the Minneapolis Zombie Pub Crawl broke store windows and caused other damage to the area in which the event was held.
[81] In 2012, a Russian zombie walk in support of Pussy Riot in Omsk, Siberia was banned by the local government.
