Horror-movie buffs have a new way to stagger, lurch and scream up some fun when zombies invade the 16th Street Mall on Saturday evening. More than 500 people in bloody makeup and ripped clothing are expected to walk in Denver’s third annual Zombie Crawl, which begins at 6 p.m. at the Denver Pavilions at 16th and Welton streets.
Spend the night as a member of the mob of walking dead or become a tasty snack — it’s your choice, coordinator Daniel Newman says.
Zombies typically are equal opportunity munchers, willing to snack on any slow-moving brain they can catch. But on Saturday night, Newman says, only those victims marked with a duct-tape “X” on their chests will be “attacked.”
So pick your path wisely.
“Over the past few years, we’ve seen a resurgence in people’s interest in pirates, ninjas and zombies in pop culture,” says Newman. “They have become iconic, and people like dressing up and being a little Halloweeny.”
Similar tongue-in-cheek zombie group walks are arranged and held in cities across the U.S. and around the world. Dates and meeting places are routinely updated on sites such as , or the local zombie online meet-up, .
Newman’s group has grown from about 80 zombies the first year to nearly 600 last year, in part because of a greater presence on blogs and social media including Facebook, Myspace and Twitter.
Newman, who travels frequently on business, said he got the idea for the Denver event when he attended a similar crawl in San Francisco four years ago. More than 800 poured into the streets there, even though the event was held in the middle of the year and the middle of the day.
“There were always fun events being held in cities like San Francisco and New York,” he said. “I have lived in Denver most of my life and I just wanted to create something for us that was fun, humorous and entertaining, like the coffin races in Manitou Springs.”
The Denver mob will be a tight group for a more startling effect. People who need help assembling their zombie costumes can show up an hour early at the Pavilions to get accessories like makeup and clothing. The zombies will walk up one side of the pedestrian mall and down the other before retiring to eat their stolen organs and body parts at Two Fisted Mario’s and Double Daughters.
Newman stressed that the event is not a pub crawl and that alcohol is not part of the family- oriented event.
“People really get into it, especially with their kids,” he said. “You will see kids wearing normal Halloween costumes like Mickey Mouse or Superman, but they will have black eyes and fake blood and gore dripping all over them.”
Sheba R. Wheeler: 303-954-1283 or swheeler@denverpost.com
