Get ready Asbury Park! The zombies are coming! The undead – will walk again – for the 16th year for the annual Asbury Park Zombie Walk.
“It started as a small event with just a hundred people and it’s grown exponentially to the point where we won the Guinness World Record - twice,” said Matthew Whelan, executive director of the Asbury Park Chamber of Commerce.
Starting on the boardwalk and ending at Johnny Mac’s House of Spirits, it’s a showcase of creativity in a city known for its lovable weirdness.
“We all open up and it’s like the middle of the summer, and especially, with the beautiful weather we are having, too,” said Dainzie, of Madam Marie’s Psychic Readers Temple of Knowledge, an iconic tourist attraction on the boardwalk.
The zombie walkers will start on the boardwalk and end up in the downtown business district. Taylor Mennie and her family’s River Street Sweets are already prepping the ghoulish gooey goodness for the hungry herd on Cookman Avenue.
“It allows people from everywhere to come here and spend their money here and helps grow and keep the revenue up for all the small businesses in town,” Mennie said. “The zombie walk, it’s more local people and that’s what we kind of like. We love the tourism but the local people have the charm.”
The fun gets underway starting at 11 a.m. Saturday, with the zombie makeover tent on the boardwalk followed by a costume judging contest - and then the walk to Johnny Mac’s later that afternoon.