Jack Ficklen
Photographer
Imagine that you’re waiting for a train at the Deep Ellum DART station. Your train finally arrives, the doors open, hundreds of zombies pour out, moaning, limping, and clawing towards the normal people on the platform.
This is the exact image that Deep Ellum residents received as their community was ravaged by people from all over the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex dressed up in the character of zombies.
The event was organized by Kael Graham and Crissy Seber, both Dallas residents who wanted to break the world record for biggest zombie invasion as well as organize a charity event for food and funds that went to the North Texas Food Bank.
The event was organized as a fun, Halloween spirited way to get food and money for the North Texas Food Bank. People attending the zombie march were given the opportunity to pay a minimum of five dollars, or give a canned food item to the food bank, and in return they would receive spooky zombie make up.
The zombie march wasn’t just about charity-it was also just about plain old, halloween fun. Zombies got to watch as normal Deep Ellum residents were freaked out as they viewed the zombie’s assault. Another of the zombies, Anthony Kay, said: “The living people that happened to be walking around that day all looked to be a little shocked, sand some were even frightened at how in depth some people dressed. When they would drive by, dozens of zombies would swarm their cars and climb all over them”.
One of the remarkable things about the event was the pure dedication that some of the people put into their spooky zombie costumes. If you weren’t careful, you almost got absorbed into the theme. I found myself thinking for a split second that there were actual zombies prowling the streets. I had to remind myself that it was a bunch of normal people in costume. Mary Harpel, an attendant of the event thought that “the dedication that some of the people had to character of the zombie was probably the most entertaining part”.
Zombies also had the chance to crawl around Deep Ellum, get drinks at local bars, as well as enjoy themselves and listen to live music from local bands.
At this particular zombie march, you didn’t really observe your normal, typical, run of the mill zombies. All around the streets of Deep Ellum people dressed up as specialized, creative, zombies. Lady Gaga zombies, Jesus Zombies, and Videogame zombies, were just some of the special getups at the event. Colleen Vaughan, a participant in the zombie march said “the most creative zombie getup was the Where’s Waldo? zombie”. Harpel said: “The most creative costume that I saw is a tie between the group of people that were dresses up as the Scooby Doo crew, zombie version, or a woman that was covered in gore and in a shredded wedding dress and pushing a bloody stroller around with her baby in it”.
All in all, it was a world recording breaking event, as well as a charitable one. In the words of one Coppell citizen who attended: “Anyone would love to dress up in fore and walk around a populated street in downtown Dallas, so why not make it charitable?”
