WALKING DEAD TAKE SURFERS
BRIANNA MORRIS-GRANT
THE dead will rise in Surfers Paradise this weekend as hundreds of zombies are expected to march across the sand dunes.
The “Zombie Walk” is the crowning event of Surfers Paradise Alliance’s Fest-Evil, a three-day Halloween “Spooktacular” celebrated in the area.
Fest-Evil will also see fireeating, magic shows and even the chance for little ghosts and ghouls to try their hand at trickor-treating.
Resident zombie and MC for the event Amanda Bacchi has been involved with the Brisbane Zombie Walk for six years, and said she was excited to see it roll out onto the Gold Coast.
“The biggest thing this year is that we’re going to be on the beach, which hasn’t been done anywhere else in the world that we’re aware of,” she said.
“That is going to be amazing, because the fake blood is going to be so sticky there’s going to be so much fake blood stuck to so many people.”
CEO of Surfers Paradise Alliance Mike Winlaw said the group had decided to partner with the organisers of Brisbane’s Zombie Walk to create the Gold Coast event.
“People love dressing up and engaging with it so we’ve turned the Halloween Zombie Walk into one big weekend of ‘Fest-Evil’,” he said, adding Halloween was taking off nationwide. “We’ve set ourselves up as the premiere Halloween event for people who want a safe place to come along and enjoy it with others who have a similar leaning to that sort of fun.
“I’m just excited we’ll see an opportunity for people to come into that safe environment and participate with the kids.” As the excitement of the weekend starts to take hold, Ms Bacchi offered some sincere advice to everyone looking to get involved — just have fun with it.
“Some people are quite frightened and I try to stay away from them, but there are others who just want to get photos with you, gravitate towards them,” she said.
“A lot of people stumble around, I tend to fall over a lot and just try to look dead. One guy thought I was actually hurt once and came running over.
“There are some gymnasts involved but some people just bring their families, push the pram through and dress the dog up.
“It’s anything that’s a little bit out of the ordinary.”
Surfers Paradise Fest-Evil runs from October 26-28. For more information and to see ticketed events visit