Smack in the middle of the Toronto After Dark festival was the annual zombie walk. It’s been a few years since the last time I participated, but this past weekend I was able to get my act together and join fellow undead enthusiasts from the city on a march (shuffle really) from Trinity Bellwoods park to Dundas and back again.
Luckily it didn’t rain and my costume was warm enough that the cold didn’t matter. The walk has really grown since the first time I attended, and was easily six-thousand strong. This year even featured the walk’s founder and organizer, Thea Munster (I hope she kept her own name), getting married in a public zombie wedding. I was too busy trying to find parking, so I missed the ceremony, but got to see the awesome costumes of the bridal party.
In addition to greater zombie attendance, there were also plenty of spectators checking out the costumes and taking pictures. I have to admit it was pretty cool stopping to pose for pictures from the ‘paparazzi’. With people watching it was easier to ham it up and get into character, and with thousands of other people doing the same thing I didn’t feel the least bit self-conscious (the fact that I was wearing a mask that I could barely see out of helped too).
Speaking of pictures, I managed to snap a few of my own. Apologies for the crappy photography, I was wearing fake nails (zombie claws) which reduced my manual dexterity to about zero (click on the picture for full-size)
Luckily it didn’t rain and my costume was warm enough that the cold didn’t matter. The walk has really grown since the first time I attended, and was easily six-thousand strong. This year even featured the walk’s founder and organizer, Thea Munster (I hope she kept her own name), getting married in a public zombie wedding. I was too busy trying to find parking, so I missed the ceremony, but got to see the awesome costumes of the bridal party.
In addition to greater zombie attendance, there were also plenty of spectators checking out the costumes and taking pictures. I have to admit it was pretty cool stopping to pose for pictures from the ‘paparazzi’. With people watching it was easier to ham it up and get into character, and with thousands of other people doing the same thing I didn’t feel the least bit self-conscious (the fact that I was wearing a mask that I could barely see out of helped too).
Speaking of pictures, I managed to snap a few of my own. Apologies for the crappy photography, I was wearing fake nails (zombie claws) which reduced my manual dexterity to about zero (click on the picture for full-size)
‘The other bunny’ – yours truly as a zombified bunny rabbit
Scare Bear – the result of a horrible experiment gone wrong, this undead ursine has recently fed.
Our pack – the bear zombie, the glory days zombie, the gypsy zombie, and the zombie zombie
The zombie walk is a great outlet for creative self-expression. That means plenty of political messages, like this funny comment on the recent controversies in the NHL.
A zombie band played us out of the park… with all the skill their cold, dead hands could muster
Just so no one thinks zombies take themselves too seriously – a pair of zombie ‘yip-yip’ Martians (these guys were hilarious).
The zombies slowly swarm out of the park, absolutely overrunning Queen Street.
Tags: Pop Culture
