Wander Words

Flash News Update: Colorado Springs 3rd Infection

photograph by Steve Carlin

The Third Annual Colorado Springs Zombie Crawl and 80’s Dance Party
Every October * Downtown Colorado Springs, Colorado *
Every year, the zombie clans of Manitou Springs, Colorado Springs, Denver, and surrounding areas take over the streets of majorly populated city centers in Colorado. Some say it’s an active re-occuring flu-like flesh-eating variant of the swine flu, others say it’s a zombie apocalypse, while many just embrace it as a new annual tradition around the world. Yes, Zombie crawls happen in almost every major city on the globe. They are growing phenomenally in population and occurence. Some say this is a sign that the end times are near and is a training routine for the zombie apocalypse. Are you prepared? Basically a Zombie Crawl is either an organized or unorganized assembly or flash mob of people dressed like zombies or the undead. Its primarily advertised by word of mouth, the internet, and social networks as it is meant to be a surprise event on the public. It is a mass group improv theatrical performance. It mutates annually to involve not only the living dead, but zombie hunters, and victims. Some are staged as spoof political rallies organized “to raise awareness of zombie rights”. Often you find a combination of all the above. The First zombie walk to hit North America, took place in 2001 on the streets of Sacremento, California. This replicated in 2002. Then October 2003 the zombies hit Toronto, Ontario. Frequency started to occur throughout North American cities. On October 29, 2006, 894 participants gathered at the Monroeville Mall in Pittsburgh, which served as the set of the classic zombie film Dawn of the Dead setting the Guiness Book of World Records. A zombie march in Brisbane, Australia on May 25, 2008 set an unofficial record of over 1500 participants according to media reports. On June 21, 2008, a zombie march took place in Chicago with a reported of over 1,550 zombies, setting a new unofficial record. Close to 50 cities worldwide participated in World Zombie Day on October 26, 2008 with over 7,500 zombies estimated. On October 30, 2008, Grand Rapids, Michigan, became the largest site of zombies anywhere in the world. Even though the official tally was at 3,370 zombies, well over 4,000+ zombies showed up to this event. [wikipedia] On 3 July 2009, a zombie walk in the Fremont neighboorhood of Seattle broke the previous record set by Grand Rapids - Guinness World Records officially recorded 3,894 zombies, though local news claimed 4,277 participants (I was there and have to say there were hundreds of zombies who didn’t want to stand in line for the official registration count so I believe the latter).

photograph by Jeff Kallaus

After attending the 2006 Denver 1st annual Zombie Crawl, Leaf McGowan decided to start and become founder of the Manitou Springs, Colorado on October 17, 2007 [roughly 45 zombies]; and continuing with the one in Colorado Springs, Colorado on October 28, 2007 [with 67 zombies] that was put on by his shop “The Tree Leaves Oracle.” In addition to the Tree Leaves’ Oracle, the Manitou Springs Crawl was also sponsored by the Ancient Mariner where the after party was held. The Colorado Springs one was also sponsored by the Underground Bar’s Goth Night. It was so successful that he continued them in 2008. [ Manitou Springs 2008 Zombie Crawl and Party with est. 70 zombies ] [ Colorado Springs 2nd Annual Zombie Crawl & 80's Party with 150+ zombies ] The 2008 Manitou Springs after-crawl social was held at the Ancient Mariner and the 2008 Colorado Springs crawl party was held again at the Underground with the amazing 80’s tunes by DJ Gypsy. This year, the crawls and parties took place again - in Manitou Springs on October 12th with 45 zombies braving freezing cold ice-rain conditions and ending their party at the Townhouse Lounge that hosted live entertainment and drink specials for the brave souls bearing winter conditions. This year’s Colorado Springs Zombie crawl took place on Friday, October 23, 2009 at the Underground Bar on the corner of Kiowa and Nevada. They openened their doors for the crowds to have a warm place to do make-up and costume help at 6:30 pm, from which they crawled from at 8 pm down Nevada, Bijou, Tejon, and Kiowa - returning back to the Underground for a spectacular 80’s dance party with music by the amazing DJ Gypsy. The party lasted until 1:30 am. It was estimated to have had 209+ participants this year. This year’s crawls came out to be a complete success with no known injuries, accidents, or issues. To become part of next year’s crawls, with a possible addition of a Spring crawl, visit the following network sites: http://www.treeleavesoracle.org/events/zombie.html; Manitou Springs: http://www.myspace.com/manitouzombiecrawl or http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=139839019208; Colorado Springs: www.myspace.com/coloradospringszombiewalk or http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=139839019208. Also in Colorado, organized by completely different Monsters is the Denver Annual Zombie Crawl and the new Boulder Zombie Crawl.

photograph by Steve Carlin

leafworks wrote this on October 28th, 2009 and filed it under Living myths and legends, Travel Report, Wandering, events, reviews, travelogues |