World Zombie Day: London
Posted by superba
Type: Crawl of the Dead (Booze involved),
Website: myspace.com
Location: Marble Arch, London, UK
Sunday the 26th of October is when zombies all over the globe are going to wrench themselves onto the streets in honour of the 40th anniversary of Night of the Living Dead - AND to do a little for charity, also. The zombs of London are no exception!
WORLD ZOMBIE DAY: October 26, 2008.
A charity fundraising horror event.
WE WILL BE SUPPORTING LONDON’S LARGEST HOMELESS CHARITY, ST MUNGO’S: http://www.mungos.org.
The event itself is free of charge, obviously, but all we ask is that you remember those less fortunate.
Please give generously by donating at our online official Justgiving page:
RISE UP UNDEAD BROTHERS AND SISTERS!!!
NOW IS OUR TIME TO GROAN AND SHAMBLE FOR WORLD HUNGER!
- World Zombie Day will be a day when all fans of zombie culture can join together. This charity event will be international. All of the cities involved will do their bit to alleviate world hunger, and this will be a first.
- “The It’s Alive Show”, World Record Holders for the largest zombie walk ever, will spearhead this event from the very birthplace of zombie culture, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA.
You, my friend, are looking at the page for the London UK (disembodied, rotting) arm of this Day. If you want to get involved, get bloody, get drunk, scare some tourists, do a little bit for charity and have a laugh… then get in touch!
JOIN US.
Look how much fun it can be…!
Okay so, updates:
- We have a starting point now: Marble Arch. Midday at Marble Arch on Sunday 26th October. Be there.
- We’ll have some stop off points along the way as well, more on them later so stay tuned.
- I’m also hoping to get a ‘zombie hotline’ set up for latecomers/interested parties to call for info. Also more on that later.
- I have SO many flyers for WZD London so PLEASE let me know if you can help circulate any. I’m hoping to bother some of the Gorezone Weekend of Horrors patrons this weekend, and maybe some other unsuspecting Londoners. If you want to help, again, message me.
- We’ve a special announcement coming… but I can’t say more, annoyingly! All I will say is: have you seen the trailers for ‘Dead Set’ on TV recently…?
- Do not forget that this is a charity affiliated day, so direct yourselves towards http://www.justgiving.com/worldzombiedaylondon and give as much as you can. We’re at a healthy £55 at the mo but it would be wonderful to watch that amount grow. Please do consider it.
- I finished the press release today so hopefully you’ll see this Day in print fairly soon. Exciting! I’ll be supplying interested journos with photos from zombie sets by both Tony Marsh and Andrew O’Hara - whose photos will also heavily feature on the Moo cards I will be handing out to zombs on the day. They are talented fellas.
UPDATE: 20/10/08
Ready?
First off, big juicy thank yous going out to anyone and everyone who has requested flyers from me. I’ve sent so many out and it’s great to know you guys are spreading the word much further than I could. Well done you! I still have a fair few left so speak up relatively quickly if you want me to send you any, to generate any more interest before the big day.
This one is quite important: I’ve been reminded that the clocks go back this weekend, so please make sure you pay attention to that and avoid turning up at the wrong time on Sunday!
Our raffle is now official and we have some wonderful prizes! Have a look:
Shirts : All from the *wonderful* Last Exit to Nowhere website.
1 x XL Dawn of the Dead ‘WGON TV’
1 x L Dawn of the Dead ‘WGON TV’
1 x Medium Ladies ‘Winchester’
DVDs :
Dawn of the Dead remake
Resident Evil
Night of the Living Dead
Land of the Dead
Shaun of the Dead
The Plague of the Zombies
plus: 3 zombie boxsets kindly donated by Revolver Entertainment :
RISE OF THE FLESH EATERS - containing The Zombie Diaries, Zombies! Zombies! Zombies! and Days of Darkness.
Pretty nice eh? There may even be more, come Sunday.
We’ll be selling the raffle tickets from midday. It’ll be easier to give them to you as we mill about at the meeting place (Marble Arch!), but the likelihood is you’ll be able to buy them at any point until we actually pull the winners out of the hat later on in the day (details on route in a min).
All proceeds from the raffle will go to St Mungo’s, naturally. So please join in the fun.
The route is something I don’t really want to make *too* rigid. As it stands at the mo I’m envisaging us shambling down Oxford St, because I’ve done that before and it’s SO much fun. We’ve had positive responses from both the Montagu Pike and Moon under Water pubs that we’re welcome there, as well as what may be the end point: The Intrepid Fox. This isn’t to say we won’t stop off elsewhere; they are just places we’ve gievn the (rotting) heads up to.
I’ll have a think about the route some more this week and obviously update you if I have further news. Suggestions also welcome of course, although time may be an issue for those of you interested in the following…
Now, ‘Dead Set’. Are you excited about Charlie Brooker’s 5-parter ‘Dead Set’? Would you like to win free tickets to attend the screening of it (in full) in central, at 7pm Sunday night AND entry into the afterparty? If so, then you need to make an extra special effort with your outfit. We’ll be giving away five pairs of tickets to the best dressed/most impressive/most gross zombies.
Initial plan is that, if you impress us you will be shortlisted. We’ll pick fifteen zombs and then either put it to the vote later on, or decide between ourselves who the lucky five are. The ten runners up will receive ‘Dead Set’ DVDs - possibly signed!
So get to it! It’s properly Hallowe’en season now, so there’s loads of fodder in the shops to dress the discerning zombie.
If any of you are panicking about your look for the day, don’t 
It’s all about fun! Here are some guides to help you along:
http://www.terror4fun.com/zombie_makeup_guide1.html
http://www.terror4fun.com/zombie_makeup_guide2.html
A note on photos taken on the day:
The wonderful Sarah Hayden has a JPEG of a letter from the Home Office detailing how, in public places, you can take as many photos as you want. This is just in case any police bug us about such a thing. Hopefully they won’t, but it doesn’t hurt to have the paperwork to back yourself up. Drop Sarah a message if you’d like a copy (or tell me and I’ll pass it on).
Alsoooo… you may wish to submit any particularly good snaps you take on the day, to this I definitely will be!
Press attention is humming nicely along, with Bizarre Magazine covering the crawl on the day (for publication on Nov 25th), and the Zone Horror website giving us a mention too - http://www.uk.zonehorror.tv/Horror_news/
Okay, this is really long so I’ll stop - for now!
Raffle:
Okay so there was a little bit of a boo-boo with the Last Exit To Nowhere shirts. We now have three ‘Winchester’ shirts in varying sizes to give away. Still bloody cool though so we shan’t complain.
We also now have two copies of the brilliant Jamie Russell book ‘Book of the Dead’ (http://www.eatmybrains.com/showfeature.php?id=36) AND a few official World Zombie Day London T-shirts as further raffle prizes.
Route:
I’ve been thinking about a route and come to the conclusion that a vague one is better than none at all. So how’s about we say:
Marble Arch -> Oxford Street until we hit Oxford Circus -> down Regent St until we hit Piccadilly Circus -> down Shaftesbury Avenue -> up Charing Cross Road -> ending up at the Intrepid Fox (by Centrepoint).
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3164/2963875363_fd87ff4cde_o.jpg
Nice and touristy. We can always play it by (rotting) ear on the day, we can meander down side streets and the like… And of course there will be pub stops! But let’s just say this is the basic plan as of now.
Of course you are welcome to splinter off if you really want to/hate the above route - in fact, I love the idea of little grouplets of us shambling about - but to have as many zombs as possible present at the Fox for the raffle would be lovely - plus you’d get to hear if you’ve won any of our wonderful prizes! The Fox opens at 5pm on a Sunday so we can say this is the “meeting up again” time and point, if you do go renegade for a while
‘Dead Set’:
With regards to the E4 ‘Dead Set’ screening, we are planning to get to the cinema in question (Apollo West End, 19 Regent St) for around 6pm. It would be ace to storm a bus/tube down to Piccadilly for this, so even if you can’t make it into the screening, please consider a visit down for the fun and photo ops beforehand.
After the photos and general zombie mischief, the lucky ticket winners (and anyone else with a ticket) will head into the showing at around 7pm. It wraps up the day a little early for some of us, so anything after 7pm that night is up fer grabs really - just make sure you have fun.
A quick mention of further helpers/pluggers:
- Kevan at Urban Dead (http://www.urbandead.com/) has kindly given as an advert spot on the game. As a fan of the game, this makes me giddily happy. Keep a look out for the WZD London artwork assaulting your eyeballs as you play!
- Apparently were in the London Lite on Monday! Did anyone see? Did anyone save a copy of the paper?! I can’t believe I missed it. But whoop whoop for the plug anyway.
Final bits…
Remember to PLEASE BRING EXTRA BLOOD AND MAKE-UP ON THE DAY! You *always* need more and it’s nice to share if a fellow zomb needs helping out. So come well stocked
Numbers are looking really impressive now* so I feel it’s time to mention the importance of playing nicely and taking responsibility for yourselves. I know this sounds dull and lecture-like but it is important stuff and it’s my duty as organiser to say it… Acting up is hilarious and encouraged but please try to avoid the more vulnerable members of the public, such as heavily pregnant ladies and OAPs! It’s just not worth it! Also please do not “attack” anyone who isn’t into it or aware of playing along, as that’s just not cool either.
Common sense tells you the boundaries really; let’s all just have a right laugh without overstepping any serious ones!
Think that’s everything for now. More soon.
*How good would it be to have the most attendees of all the 52 cities worldwide taking part? C’mon!
———
FINAL UPDATE:
Are we all ready? Blood and brains all stocked up and ready to roll?
Just some final things to tell you all - although don’t rule out another message later if I realise I’ve forgotten something…
- WZD London received a very special raffle prize in the post yesterday. It’s come all the way from Zombie HQ in Pittsburgh! It is this book: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Zombie-Movies-Ultimate-Glenn-Kay/dp/0889628688
The cover art is different (better) on the copy you can win though.
- Talking of the raffle: would anyone like to help us sell the tickets? We can’t offer you much more than a drink or two bought for you and the warm glow of helping to raise money for charity… but hopefully that’s an incentive for some of you?! The more helpers we have the easier it’ll be. Let me know.
- We have a fair few people coming with things to offer zombie fans it seems. I’ve been getting e-mails this week regarding music video recruitment and also videogame releases, so keep an eye out on the day for anything you can blag/get involved in. There will hopefully be some interesting offers floating about.
(I didn’t want this to become a commercial venture of course, but have given my ‘permission’ to those I thought fellow zombie fans might be interested in).
- It’s a little late for requests I know, but if anyone would like to make a placard or two for tomorrow, that would not only be really very cool - but they are handy as anything for spotting the horde in a crowd of civilians. Something along the lines of http://austinist.com/attachments/austinist_shannon/zombies.jpg if you need any inspiration. I wish I’d had time to do this myself :/
- Another reminder that after the event, do remember to upload your photos and tell all where they can be found! On Facebook, Myspace, Flickr… wherever. It’s always cool looking back over pics from the day.
- **Don’t forget about the clocks going back tonight!**
See you all tomorrow at midday at Marble Arch (it looks like this http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d5/Marble.arch.london.arp.jpg and you will probably have to take a walkway under the surround roads to get to it). Excited!!!
Thanks once again to everyone who has helped to spread the word, see you soon!
Comments
smarttaste says:
Zombies Gifts
http://www.zazzle.com/zombies+smarttaste+gifts
...on 15th Sep, 2010 at 5:11 PM
smarttaste says:
Zombies Gift
...on 15th Sep, 2010 at 5:08 PM
superba says:
YES!
http://www.crawlofthedead.com/crawls/info/world_zombie_day_london_2009
...on 6th Oct, 2009 at 8:17 PM
Justindamnation says:
Is this happening this year???????
...on 23rd Jul, 2009 at 6:00 AM
superba says:
If you attended and fancy telling Bizarre Mag about it, then you’re in luck…
“The highest of hi,
My name is Miss Alix Fox, and I edit the Weird World news section of BIZARRE MAGAZINE, the world’s largest alternative culture publication (bizarremag.com).
We’re reporting on the World Zombie Day crawls that went on across the earth on Sunday. If you went to one, open your maggoty mouth and tell us about it!
We want to know:
* How did you dress/make yourself up, and what were the most impressive outfits/lurching moves you saw other people pull off?
* Were there any particularly funny moments through the day? What reactions did you get from people?
* Did you sing any zombie songs/chants? How did the undead keep morale high in places where the heavens opened?
* What were the highlights of the event for you?
Please send answers (and any other weird news you might have) to alix_fox@dennis.co.uk .
Rot on!
Alix xxx”
:D
...on 27th Oct, 2008 at 12:03 PM
superba says:
I bloody hate recording voicemail greetings but I’m SO committed I’ve done just that.
07501647747.
It diverts straight to voicemail and I’ve just basically read out the route sent round a couple of days ago. It won’t be hard and fast but I thought it might feasibly help someone…
I’ll try my very best to reply to texts to that number also.
...on 26th Oct, 2008 at 12:08 AM
superba says:
5pm we will be in or very near The Intrepid Fox pub, which is more or less under Centrepoint
...on 25th Oct, 2008 at 4:33 PM
Zomblee says:
Where will you guys be at about 5pm, because I’m at expo during the day.
...on 24th Oct, 2008 at 9:59 AM
superba says:
Nicki mail me at worldzombiedaylondon @ gmail.com with your address and I’ll send them out asap!
...on 20th Oct, 2008 at 3:53 PM
Someone says:
i can and would love to help give out flyers for this sunday’s zombie march get in touch asap and tell me how..
...on 20th Oct, 2008 at 1:34 PM
Someone says:
I want to come and get bloody!!!!!!!!!!!!
...on 20th Oct, 2008 at 11:05 AM
superba says:
https://www.yousendit.com/transfer.php?action=batch_download&batch_id=Y2ovV281Y3kyWGRjR0E9PQ
Press release for the day in case anyone wants a peek.
...on 19th Oct, 2008 at 11:53 AM
superba says:
That viewlondon one looks like Crawl of the Dead 5 - http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=27148859870 although I can’t be sure cos I’ve been too busy with this one to keep track of what they are up to. I suppose it’s the time of year for it though!
Funny they are starting at Waxy’s… we rung them today to ask if they’d mind us stopping there on WZD and they said they didn’t want zombies on the premises! Might be a swift half they have there.
—-
MARBLE ARCH IS NOW WHERE WE ARE MEETING!!! Midday, Sun 26th.
...on 15th Oct, 2008 at 5:53 PM
Someone says:
Is this even happening? There is one on Brighton beach on 1st November - this has a place and time, and its on a Saturday! But it just isnt London - it hasn’t got the landmarks to dominate and the tourists to confuse.
I found this on viewlondon.co.uk:
http://www.viewlondon.co.uk/whatson/zombie-walk-london-article-4873.html
Looks great and well organised - but I have no idea if anyone is going to it?!
...on 15th Oct, 2008 at 2:13 PM
Someone says:
Forget Braaaiinns! Neeeewws! Need Neeewws!
...on 14th Oct, 2008 at 10:21 PM
superba says:
I know kitch, it wouldn’t have been my ideal day either! I think the reason HQ made it a Sunday was solely because they have a weekend of events planned in Pittsburgh, culminating in the crawl/record attempt… so we all had to follow suit!
When I looked on IMDb the actual anniversary of NotLD is the first of Oct - oh! Today! Awww.
...on 1st Oct, 2008 at 3:12 PM
Someone says:
If only this wasn’t planned for a Sunday, I’ve got to somehow make it back to Brighton AND remove all the blood etc in time for work on the Monday morning. :s Fun times!
...on 1st Oct, 2008 at 1:36 PM
superba says:
...so stressed I can’t seem to spell anymore. Sorry
...on 1st Oct, 2008 at 1:34 PM
superba says:
No, nothing as yet unfortunately! I am tearing my hair out. The place we’ve asked to use has been stringing me along for two weeks - just tell me yes or no!
I’ve got a back-up though as as SOON as I get the yay or nay from this guys I will make the meeting point known, I promise.
Stressed!
I hope everyone is still excited though! :D
...on 1st Oct, 2008 at 1:33 PM
badmouse says:
is there any news on the location yet?
...on 30th Sep, 2008 at 5:18 PM