Entry for the walk was canned food donations to the local St. Mary's Food Bank. Zombie Make-Up was also provided for additional donations. 1569 lbs of food was collected and $200.00 for the food bank was collected from the make-up donations.
Almost 4000 zombies were in attendance, doubling last year's participation numbers. Almost a mile of downtown streets were closed while a police escort led the Ecto-AZ and the Arizona Ghostbusters on the route warning passers-by of the zombie outbreak. The Zombie Horde stretched for almost 5 full blocks. The Department of Zombie Defense helped keep the Zombies in line throughout the walk. This has been by far the largest event we have helped organize and can't wait to break our record next year.
Phoenix Edge Blog Recap: http://nikidandrea.wordpress.com/2011/10/30/zombie-walk-3-downtown-phoenix-comes-alive-with-the-undead/
News Photo Gallery: http://www.azcentral.com/photo/Entertainment/Events/20540#phototop
News Report: http://www.abc15.com/dpp/news/region_phoenix_metro/central_phoenix/zombies-crawl-the-streets-of-phoenix-
Local News Vid: http://www.myfoxphoenix.com/dpp/news/local/phoenix/zombies-look-for-brains-to-eat-in-phoenix-10302011
Interview Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yg72F-lDFsw
Various vids from thoughout the walk:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hr4PtoVpQAA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DixEIERe7tw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=51K9UA_E_Ek
Probably the best vid of the walk: http://vimeo.com/31416346
Some of our pics:
The Department of Zombie Defense has everything under control.
“Zombies are imminent! Take cover!”
Matt Haynes of the Arizona Ghostbusters is yelling through a megaphone at the people lining the streets of downtown Phoenix, staring at him and the rest of the Ghostbusters, who’re all illuminated below the flashing blue lights atop the group’s Ecto-1 car. Behind them are almost 4,000 people dressed as groaning, lurching zombies.
This is Zombie Walk 3, the public parade of horribles that’s become the highlight of the annual Halloween Festival at Heritage Square. The walk starts around First and Monroe Streets, with hordes of sinewy undead then shuffling north down Second Street, screeching through the outdoor plaza of the Arizona Center, dripping southbound on Third Street to Washington, and looping back to Monroe. The AZ Ghostbusters, along with another costuming group called the Department of Zombie Defense, is tasked with leading the walk and keeping the flesh eaters in line.
Festivities started at 2 p.m., with live music from band The Alchemy Heart, and The Recovery Junkies. The latter played covers of ’80s songs like “Come On Eileen,” “She Blinded Me with Science,” and “Relax.” There was a busy beer garden this year, located next to some bouncy castles. Some things just go together.
Arizona Ghostbusters at the scene of the crime.
The turnout is insane, nearly double the 2k that showed last year. Everywhere I look, there are pale green and mottled gray faces, puffy gashed skin oozing fake blood, and whitish-blue contact lenses. There are zombies of every type: surgeon zombies, butcher zombies, copious brain-craving clowns, soldier zombies, an undead chef, zombie brides, sugar skull zombies, and a couple Michael Jackson “Thriller” ringers. But some people got really inventive (or lazy, depending on how you look at it), and zombie-fied their Halloween costumes. There was zombie Jesus, zombie “Macho Man” Randy Savage, and a zombie Elvis, strumming a guitar and singing “Johnny B. Goode.” And if you’re still wondering, “Where’s Waldo?” – he was there, too, with flesh peeling from his forehead and blood dripping down his chin.
Zombie Banana
But my two favorite zombies had to be the banana zombie and the zombie cow. When a giant, bruised banana lunges at you and screams that it wants to eat you, it’s pretty intense – like, don’t fuck with fruit, lest it come back from the dead overripe and angst-ridden. (That reminds me of a joke: What does a vegetarian zombie say? “Graaains, graaains.”)
When a guy in a bloody-faced cow costume comes shuffling through the herd, a woman next to me exclaims, “A frickin’ Chick-fil-A cow! Now I really have seen everything.”
The cow hears her, turns, and says, “Moooooo, moooooo.” (That reminds me of a bad joke: What does a hairlip cow say? “Neeew, neew.”)
Zombie Cow
While following thousands of people dressed as zombies through the streets of downtown Phoenix is entertaining, it’s really the expressions of innocent bystanders who have no idea what the hell is going on that provide the most amusement. Because this is a huge-scale event that encompasses four busy blocks of downtown, there are some street closures and the police are out in mass to chaperone the walk, conduct traffic, and answer questions from confused non-zombie drivers. The walk plugs up Third Street for a good thirty minutes, while a queue of cars sits idling at the exit of the Catholic Diocese of Phoenix garage, their drivers scratching their heads and wondering how long it’s going to take them to get out.
Even the Downtown Phoenix Ambassadors got infected.
There’s a huge scene when the walk goes through the outdoor plaza at the Arizona Center. Maybe it was the acoustics, but the walking corpses seemed to get louder in the atrium. It sounds like a slaughter and looks like a scene out of a horror movie. Unsuspecting families stand in the doorway of Cold Stone Creamery, their mouths open between licks of their ice cream cones. The packed house at Hooters turns away from the football game on TV when they hear the impending swarm. A few people come out of the AMC theater lobby and run up the stairs to get an overhead look – the entire courtyard and walkway is plugged wall-to-wall with zombies. Some are carrying picket signs that say things like “Zombie Rights,” “Keep your change, I want brains,” and “Eat the 1%.”
Looks, there’s Waldo!
Everywhere the throng goes, they draw people out of surrounding buildings. Crowds gather on every corner, frantically reaching for cameras and cell phones.
The walk lasts about an hour, and by the time it’s over, Phoenix’s zombie fray has left fake blood splatters and gelatinous entrails all over the sidewalks. Viva los muertos!