The Asheville Zombie Walk started in October 2006 as a flash mob.Rankin, Garrett
“Zombies Take Over Asheville at Annual Zombie Walk”
. “ The Blue Banner”. Retrieved 4 March 2012. Several hundred participants gathered in a cemetery in

Asheville, North Carolina Asheville ( ) is a city in Buncombe County, North Carolina, United States. Located at the confluence of the French Broad River, French Broad and Swannanoa River, Swannanoa rivers, it is the county seat of Buncombe County. It is the most populou ...

following prompts from

MySpace Myspace (formerly stylized as MySpace, currently myspace; and sometimes my␣, with an elongated Whitespace character#Substitute images, open box symbol) is a social networking service based in the United States. Launched on August 1, 2003, it w ...

and flyers. Throughout the years, the walk grew into the family-friendly Ashtoberfest, a program featuring additional events like

zombie A zombie (Haitian French: ; ; Kikongo: ''zumbi'') is a mythological undead corporeal revenant created through the reanimation of a corpse. In modern popular culture, zombies appear in horror genre works. The term comes from Haitian folkl ...

-themed bands and games. During the 2008 presidential campaign between

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II (born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who was the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the first African American president in American history. O ...

and

John McCain John Sidney McCain III (August 29, 1936 – August 25, 2018) was an American statesman and United States Navy, naval officer who represented the Arizona, state of Arizona in United States Congress, Congress for over 35 years, first as ...

, vice presidential candidate

Sarah Palin Sarah Louise Palin (; Heath; born February 11, 1964) is an American politician, commentator, and author who served as the ninth governor of Alaska from 2006 until her resignation in 2009. She was the 2008 Republican vice presidential nomi ...

made a campaign appearance in Asheville on World Zombie Day. Hundreds of zombie marchers broke off from the Zombie Walk to protest Palin's appearance at the town's civic center. Founder Dan Burrello understood that Palin's appearance and the Zombie Walk might clash and was able to address the situation beforehand. Burrello said, “I mean, when you see 700 shambling dead zombies walking toward the Civic Center up the bridge, it would probably get the

Secret Service A secret service is a government agency, intelligence agency, or the activities of a government agency, concerned with the gathering of intelligence data. The tasks and powers of a secret service can vary greatly from one country to another. For i ...

's attention. So we gave them a heads up on it to make sure they know we're not doing any kind of protest or (are a) threat in anyway.” The Asheville zombie Palin protestors appeared in several national media programs, including “Countdown with Keith Olbermann” on

MSNBC MSNBC is an American cable news channel owned by the NBCUniversal News Group division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. Launched on July 15, 1996, and headquartered at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in Manhattan, the channel primarily broadcasts r ...

. In October 2011, the Zombie Walk moved from downtown Asheville to the Biltmore Square Mall on the outskirts of the city. Burello said having the walk at a mall was an homage to the 1978 classic zombie film “ Dawn of the Dead.” One performer of note in 2011 was

Secret Agent 23 Skidoo Secret Agent 23 Skidoo or (SAS23) is a Grammy Award-winning hip-hop musician from Asheville, North Carolina, United States. Secret Agent 23 Skidoo has been performing children's music since 2008. He performs hip-hop for children. After a decade ...

, who appears on the

Grammy Award The Grammy Awards, stylized as GRAMMY, and often referred to as The Grammys, are awards presented by The Recording Academy of the United States to recognize outstanding achievements in music. They are regarded by many as the most prestigious ...

-winning album “All About Bullies. . . Big and Small.”Kiss, Tony
“Asheville and Western North Carolina well represented at tonight’s Grammy awards”
“

Asheville Citizen-Times The ''Asheville Citizen-Times'' is a daily newspaper of Asheville, North Carolina. It was formed in 1991 as a result of a merger of the morning ''Asheville Citizen'' and the afternoon ''Asheville Times''. It is owned by Gannett. History Foun ...

”. 11 February 2012. Retrieved 4 March 2012. The Zombie Walk was discontinued as of 2017.

References

{{Reflist Organized events in Asheville, North Carolina Zombies in popular culture 2006 establishments in North Carolina 2017 disestablishments in North Carolina