Welcome to the First Annual Zombie Walk!
Why a Zombie Walk? It's a Halloween theme that has spread around the globe. Zombie Walks are held in every major city from Toronto Canada to Cape Town South Africa.
As of November 2012, the Twin Cities Minneapolis–Saint Paul hold the current world record for zombie gathering, recognized by Guinness at a count of 8027 at Midway Stadium
in Saint Paul on 13 October 2012. Estimates of the entire Twin Cities
crawl put the zombie event upwards of 30,000 zombie participates,
surpassing any other gathering of its kind, official or not.
Some zombie walks incorporate pub crawling, during which participants visit multiple bars over the course of the walk.
On 15 October 2005, the first large-scale zombie pub crawl was held in Minneapolis. The crawl consisted of roughly 150 participants in zombie costumes moving from bar to bar in the city's Northeast
district. The Minneapolis "Zombie Pub Crawl" has since become an annual
event and attendance has grown exponentially; each year it takes place
in a different area of the city.
Charity work continues to be a common component of zombie walks across the planet. Community service organizations such as Zombie Squad have used zombie walks as demonstrations to raise funds and awareness for local and global issues, such as world hunger.
Both world record walks at Pittsburgh's Zombie Fest have included food drives. In 2008, The It's Alive Show initiated World Zombie Day. The It's Alive Show
encouraged cities all over the globe to celebrate World Zombie Day by
holding zombie walks to raise awareness of global hunger. The first
World Zombie Day took place 26 October 2008, the same day as
Pittsburgh's Zombie Fest, when more than 30 cities worldwide took part. Food drives
for local hunger-related charities took place at each participating
city's zombie walk. Pittsburgh's walk alone brought in more than one ton
of food to benefit the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank. The second World Zombie Day took place 11 October 2009, with even more participation from cities all over the world.
21 October 2012 saw over 12,000 participants march through the city of Brisbane. With a new music festival
format added to the event, Brisbane Zombie Walk raised $55,000 for the
Brain Foundation of Australia, making them the most successful zombie
charity event in the world. In 2011, the Brisbane Zombie Walk made over
$25,000 for the Brain Foundation.
The Downtown Meadville Business Alliance hopes to help our local food banks and with your help and support, we can. If you would like to give but don't want to dress up, that's ok too. Bring your canned goods to the Downtown Mall between 1:00 pm and 3:00 pm on Saturday, October 19th.
