Asbury Park's undead rise up for annual Zombie Walk: Guts, gore and brains abound
Zombies, brains — and umbrellas.
The boardwalk, at first, was empty on Saturday. Shop-owners had brought their easel signs back inside and closed their doors as rains lashed in Asbury Park with heavy winds that made it hard for umbrellas to keep their shape.
Some 40 zombies found refuge early Saturday afternoon inside the Asbury Park Convention Hall, where they waited for the rain to break, before they could start the 15th annual Zombie Walk of Asbury Park.
“If it keeps raining, I'll just stay in here. There's nice people here and good music,” said Agnes Cruz, 51, from Toms River, while sporting a zombie bride costume that took her two hours to put together.
This was Cruz’s first time participating in the event. She moved to New Jersey from Staten Island and the Zombie Walk was top of her to-do list. As she put it, Halloween is her favorite holiday, even more so than Christmas.
Co-founded by Jason Meehan in 2008, the Asbury Park Zombie Walk has become one of the most iconic events in the city. The 4,093 attendees in 2010 made it into the Guinness Book of World Records, as did the 9,592 participants in 2013. The title is currently held by the 2014 Zombie Pub Crawl in Minneapolis with 15,458 zombies.
And while there were storm clouds threatening to overshadow the event, zombies never waver, and neither did this year’s attendees.
“I’m determined,” said Lauren Bonczek from Cranford. When asked if her makeup was waterproof, she let out a slightly nervous “I guess so!”
Bonczek, 32, has attended the zombie walk twice before and described the event as her fun time.
"I like it because you can be as creative as you want. It's for everybody. Everyone just has fun,” she said. “I am a special FX artist, here I can do whatever I want and be whoever I want and there is no judgement."
Bonczek’s zombie character of choice involved a trio with two of her friends.
“I did the theme of Beetle Juice, she's Miss Argentina and he's Adam,” she explained. “We wanted to be more of a group but also have our individuality,” proving that a good zombie always thinks about the mob.
Jezebel Keller, 28, from Jackson, is no stranger to the zombie walk.
“We had just moved to the beach and it was something to do on a cold day with our kids and then it just became a tradition,” Kellen said. “Our kids are Halloween-obsessed. We're very big Halloween people.”
As more and more zombies arrived at the shore, it was clear that it would take more than the afterlife and a little rain to stop this year’s festivities.
“I'm expecting some camaraderie, walking and seeing the parade,” said Jim Walters, 49, from Hackensack.
This was Walters' 6th time attending the walk and he dressed as a bitten voodoo doll that came back to life.
“We had heard about it online and thought it would be fun to dress up,” he says about his first time walking. “We knew that they were doing makeup, so we decided to try it.”
This is not the first time rain threatened Zombie Walk. As Saturday afternoon's rain began to give way, the crowd grew larger, and, as walkers prepared to start marching at 4 p.m., there were about 2,000 zombies and Halloween aficionados preparing to celebrate.
This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Asbury Park Zombie Walk 2023: Walking dead take over the boardwalk
