To see a video on this year’s Zombie Day, click here.
As Memorial Tower chimed 6 o’clock, the undead gathered in its shadow to prepare for a campus raid.Clothes torn, faces painted and corn syrup dripping from every surface, zombified students staggered across campus for the third annual Zombie Day. The undead set out from the Parade Ground in search of flesh to devour and bystanders to startle.Scaring custodians and confusing students, the zombies moaned and groaned as they ambled through Coates Hall, through the Quad and past the library.The mob even stopped to bang on the windows of the CC’s Coffee House in Middleton Library, shocking studying customers. Sixto Mendez, environmental management systems sophomore, was waiting for a ride by the flagpole near Memorial Tower after studying in the library when the zombies walked by. “It kind of changes your day a little bit,” Mendez said. “You definitely don’t see that everyday.”The participants of Zombie Day concluded their walk with a costume contest and a viewing of “Shaun of the Dead” in the Howe-Russell Geoscience Complex.Tyler Harrison, biology senior, won the contest as a dead Michael Jackson from the music video “Thriller.” His costume came complete with a portable iPod speaker. At the flagpole, Harrison broke out into the “Thriller” dance for the full extent of the song.Harrison said he was planning on being Michael Jackson for Halloween anyway and added the zombie makeup for the event. He learned the “Thriller” dance from a Web site just for the holiday and plans to walk around campus in costume Friday.The other costume winner was a family complete with a 13-month-old zombie. Chris Cano, general studies senior, brought his wife Melissa and their son Issac to participate in the festivities.Zombie Day was started three years ago by friends Tommy Nichols and Adam Rabalais, now University alumni. His first few years at the University, Rabalais said they noticed people didn’t get excited about Halloween and they wanted to share their excitement.The original idea involved getting 20 or so students to wander through the Union. Rabalais said zombies were the best pick for a group activity.”If you had a big group of Frankensteins walking around it wouldn’t really work as well,” Rabalais said. “With zombies everyone has the same goal of making as big a group as possible.”Word spread through a Facebook event page and fliers they handed out in Free Speech Alley. He said by the time the event started the turnout was much larger than expected.”It was a lot bigger than we thought it was going to be,” said Rabalais of the first year. He said this year and last year the turnout was smaller. Owen Jones, urban entymology senior, said this is his second year participating in the event.”It’s fun, it’s definitely a nice break from a busy semester,” Jones said.Adam Rabalais’s brother Matt, studio art sophomore, also dressed up as a zombie. He said they mostly get amused looks from bystanders, and people don’t tend to think they are actual zombies. “We’re just trying to get people to have fun for Halloween,” Matt Rabalais said.—-Contact Lauren Walck at [email protected]