Practiced on

During the entire fall season and not on a specific day

Country of Origin 

Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United Stated - August 2000 

Key Points / Halloween Connection

- Organized gathering of participants who dress as zombies and meet at a single location, often an urban center, before following a predetermined path through streets and public spaces

Rink Fact: Occassionally zombie walks will be unannounced beforehand in order to create shock at the appearance of several hundred zombies suddenly flooding a city in the name of performance art

Brief Bio

A zombie walk is an organized public gathering of people who dress up in zombie costumes. 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. Originating in North America during the 2000s, zombie walks have occurred throughout the world.

Zombie walks are relatively common in large cities, especially in North America. Some have been established as annual traditions, though others are organized as spontaneous flash mob events or performance art. The complexity and purpose of zombie walks varies. As an advanced technique to heighten interest and realism, some zombie mobs will "eat" victims to create new zombies, in sight of onlookers. 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. Some zombie walks have also been staged as "hunger marches" with the intent of raising awareness of world hunger and collecting items for food banks.

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. Michael Yates, Mark Stafford, Jacob Skowronek and several others organized the event with roughly 60 participants. 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.