Zombies and Monsters take over the Gaslamp
Alex Owens | Downtown News
Oct. 26 promises to be a bloody good time in the Gaslamp Quarter, with three kinds of killer parties happening.
First up is the “San Diego Zombie Walk,” a free all-ages event where the city’s undead will shamble along city streets in the early evening hours. Participants are asked to meet at the Children’s Park, located on Martin Luther King Promenade between Front and First streets, at 5:30 p.m. This year’s theme is “Undead Heroes.”
Since its inception in June of 2007, the Zombie Walks – which happen a few times during the year in various locations – have attracted hundreds of zombies to the Gaslamp Quarter, Downtown.
Zombies of drinking age may want to stay alive after the Walk for slightly more lubricating Halloween experiences: the “San Diego Zombie Crawl” and the “Monster Bash.”
The Zombie “pub” Crawl gives alcohol-craving undead the opportunity to use their bra-a-ains to figure their way through a maze leading to 19 different nightclubs where they can kill whatever brain cells they have left.
Meanwhile, from 6 p.m. until midnight, the annual “Monster Bash” will take place outside from the area around Sixth Ave. and Market St., to Eighth Ave. between Island Ave. and J St. St. It will combine three stages, 10 bars, and 50 “toxic dancers” into one giant block party.
In the past, the Monster Bash and the Zombie Crawl were included together – sort of like the Thing With Two Heads – but this year, the previously conjoined events have been surgically separated, according to organizer Sin Bosier.
“This year, we decided to branch out and allow people to do one or the other,” she said.
Choosing just one could get scary.
The Monster Bash organizers promise to turn the East Village into, as the website breathlessly puts it, “a world of lust, depravity and madness … where rules can be broken and immorality is welcomed.”
Zombie Crawlers, on the other hand, will be admitted into the Gaslamp’s hottest nightclubs without paying cover charges and get 10 welcome shots at the clubs of their choice. In addition, participants will get an official “zombie-hunting permit” and a special map that will walk the zombies through the Gaslamp, with special escape routes along the way.
The Crawl, which costs $60 per undead, starts with the “Resurrection Opening Party” at Frauds & Swindlers at 835 Fifth Ave., and ends – for those who survive – with an “Underworld Closing Celebration” at the Pussycat Dolls Dollhouse at 432 F. St.
Advance tickets for Monster Bash – which include a free ride home – are $30 until Oct. 14, $35 from Oct. 15-26, and $40 on the day of the event. VIP tickets are $65 in advance and $75 at the door. Bosier estimates 1,000 people will participate in the Zombie Crawl, while Monster Bash could see up to 10,000. Both events are 21 and up only.
Bosier is especially proud of the plans for this year’s Zombie Crawl.
“I enjoy planning the route, and where it opens and closes,” she said. “It will be a progressive experience that locals or visitors will appreciate. We’ve worked hard to make it drunk-friendly and idiot proof.”
That said, zombies are known for being brainless, so the SDZombieWalk.com website has offered tips for undead peeps to get the most out of their Walking Dead experience.
Some of the advice includes these (literal) no-brainers:
- Zombies shuffle and lurch slowly
- Zombies don’t have or use cell phones
- Zombies don’t talk or scream or shriek or howl — they moan or grunt
- Zombies move in a slow, halted manner and don’t run, skip or cartwheel.
Bosier is still picking out her zombie costume, but says she and her crew will do something special.
“We’re planning to have airbrush artists paint special effects on our bodies,” she said.
For more info, check out SanDiegoMonsterBash.com, SanDiegoZombieCrawl.com and Facebook.com/SDZombieWalk.
Alex Owens is a San Diego based freelance writer.
