Who hasn’t dressed up as a zombie for Halloween or enjoyed a good evening in with popcorn and a cult-ish zombie movie like Shaun of the Dead or Night of the Living Dead. Like vampires, zombies are hitting the mainstream and are appearing in kids cartoons (e.g. Monster High), fashion, and in literature.
As such, Zombie walks are rapidly increasing in popularity, attractions like Atlanta’s Zombie Apocolypse are becoming “to do” tourist destinations, and Run for Your Life events are selling out all over North America.
Vancouver is no exception. Their Zombie Walk began in 2005 as the Braintrain event (zombies travelled by Skytrain) and has since evolved into an elaborate afternoon out in the city. This year we pulled out our make-up and joined the throng of stumbling, moaning, brain-eating Vancouverites.
Before the event, we meandered around the Vancouver Gallery looking at the elaborate and sometimes intense costumes… some straight out of the movie industry. People posed and danced to live music in an incredible photographic feast; cameras flashed and at times it seemed as though there were more photographers than walkers. As we headed down Robson, the number of picture takers only seemed to increase.
30-minutes later the event wasn’t entirely over. The end of the walk signalled the beginning of themed parties and for the next 12-hours the city was engulfed in living dead mania as zombies appeared all over downtown in bars, pubs, restaurants, grocery stores, and coffee shops.
