A zombie walk (also known as a zombie mob, zombie march, zombie horde, zombie lurch, 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).

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 "eat" victims to create new zombies, in sight of onlookers. The better coordinated zombie mobs will establish a route and an easily recognizable signal, so that other participants can plant themselves 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 greenish makeup and fake blood, to create a new zombie, who then shambles along with the ever-expanding pack to find new victims.

History

The earliest zombie walk on record was held in the summer of 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 as a way to promote their annual midnight film festival. A few dozen folks gathered to be made up as zombies and then paraded around town. They were driven to various parade routes in a white school bus owned by The Gallery Horsecow. The event was a success and has continued annually ever since, with a Zombie Pub Crawl and Zombie Art Walks added.

Another early zombie walk was held in October 2003, in Toronto, Ontario. It was organised by local horror movie fan Thea Munster, and had only six participants. By 2005, the idea of the zombie walk had spread to several North American cities and some had gotten quite large. On July 30, 2005 San Francisco was visited by approximately 200 zombies who entertained tourists around Union Square, and played dead on the BART train. 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.

In the second 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. 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. .A zombie march in Brisbane, Australia on May 25th, 2008 set an unofficial record over over 1500 participants according to media reports. On June 21st, 2008, a zombie march took place in Chicago with a reported over 1,000 zombies.

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.

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. Some events are staged as spoof political rallies organized "to raise awareness of zombie rights", with participants carrying placards.

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.

Charity events

Organizations like Zombie Squad have hosted zombie walks to raise awareness or money for community service events, most commonly blood drives since the infection in zombie movies is traditionally spread by blood contact or a bacteriological infection passed through the saliva.

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

 

Source sited Wikipedia