With zombie culture becoming more and more popular, it’s not uncommon to see corpse-themed walks and parades popping up in cities all over the world. While it’s easy to get into these events and have fun, Mexico seems to take celebrating the undead to a whole different level.
Zombie Walk started as a way to promote a film festival in Sacramento, California, in 2001. The event began spreading all over the globe, including to Mexico. After breaking Sydney‘s Guinness World Record in 2011 with more than 9,803 zombies in Mexico City, the country’s zombie culture has grown tremendously. Zombie Walk Mexico has gone from being an annual event to a full-on lifestyle, with themed parties, film festivals, media releases containing zombie news, promotions and games. In fact, each month, there are at least one or two zombie parties.
Along with the parties, says Martín Emilio Zavala Santamaría, the Press Department Chief of Zombie Walk México, “It is fairly common that there are from one to three zombie activities each month, mostly during October and November, as the date of the ‘Dia de los Muertos’ comes close in Mexico.”
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He continues to talk about how the movement has grown, explaining, “In the beginning we never expected 12,000 zombies at our walk, and now we see at least 200 people at every zombie event and are expecting a thousand runners in the Zombiecausto. With a webpage producing texts, audio and photos, making our own videos, appearing in public radio and TV, we keep producing more because people keep asking for more.”
Some activities Zombie Walk has had in the past include “Sony Flash Mob,” where they helped Sony with the recording of an impromptu public zombie dance; “Zombie Night at the Drive-In Cinema,” where they played “Night of the Living Dead,” served themed foods and gave out costume prizes; and the “Morbido Film Festival,” an annual horror and fantasy film event.
Their biggest event, however, is right around the corner on August 4, “Zombiecausto.” It entails racing through the woods scrambling for your life to get away from a zombie mob to a safe zone. The goal of the event is get participants to feel as if they’re actually living in the world of the undead. Additionally, the country’s next zombie walks will take place on October 22, in Guadalajara, Leon and, of course, Mexico City.
If you’re interested in taking part in some zombie-related fun in Mexico, you can contact info@zombiewalk.mx for information. For a more visual idea of Zombie Walk Mexico, check out the gallery above.
[Image above via Bob Jagendorf; Gallery photos via the Mexico Tourism Board]
