Not unlike a ravenous horde of zombies infecting anyone in their way, interest in Rochester's zombie walk and concert is spreading.
Zombie walks — crawls, shambles and shuffles — in which people dress up in zombie costumes and take to the streets (and sometimes bars) in groups are increasing in number and popularity around the world as the fascination with the horror film creature grows. An estimated 5,000 people participated in the Zombie Pub Crawl in Minneapolis last year.
What's believed to be the first-ever zombie walk in Rochester is set to take place Aug. 28 starting from the Peace Plaza downtown in conjunction with the Zombies Night Out concert at the Eagles Club.
Having always wanted to participate in a zombie walk but never having had the opportunity here, Courtney Reed, 24, of Rochester decided to organize one. With the help of friend Cheyenne Degenhardt, the walk is growing in scope.
Already more than 200 people have expressed interest in the event through Facebook.
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Reed hopes this will be a precursor for an even bigger walk for Zombie Awareness Day in May.
The Zombies Night Out concert is the brainchild of Andrew Schacht, of Wild Card Promotions.
"I am a huge fan of zombies and old horror movies," Schacht said.
He's also a fan of the Rochester-based band Zed on Arrival, which is known for its zombie style.
"We originally formed just for fun because we thought it would be cool to sing about zombies and characters from George Romero's zombie movies," said Alex Stephenson of Zed on Arrival. "Since we were all pretty obsessed with zombies, we decided to dress up as zombies for all the shows."
Several fans have also taken to dressing like zombies for the funk/punk/jam concerts.
Headlining the concert will be Con Queso , the latest project by Greg Norton, who played bass in the famed Minneapolis post-punk band Husker Du. Con Queso is an experimental, progressive rock/punk band based in Red Wing.
Also performing will be Dead Bundy and the Neat Neat Neats , a psychobilly punk band with upright bass out of Forest Lake, and Hale Bop, an experimental folk rock band from Rochester.
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Expect all the bands to be dressed in their best zombie attire. "Rochester," Schacht said, "needs a good scare."
