Thousands of zombies travel to Market Square

Pale hordes of the undead shamble through Pittsburgh’s Market Square. Survivors become… Pale hordes of the undead shamble through Pittsburgh’s Market Square. Survivors become soldiers. Quarantine comes into effect. Blood stains the streets.

Of course, the zombies are living people, the survivors are armed with weapons of plastic and foam, the quarantine is just a joke and the blood is fake. What sounds like the setting of the next horror blockbuster was actually the scene at the Oct. 8 Pittsburgh Zombie Fest, which took place on World Zombie Day.

The annual Zombie Fest began in 2007. It’s sponsored by The It’s Alive Show, a late-night horror program on WBGN-CD in Pittsburgh.

Volunteer coordinator Sharon Tryc, who was dressed in everyday clothing, said that the event not only serves as a fun day for the thousands who flock to Market Square, but it also benefits charities.

Tryc said that Zombie Fest volunteers, dressed in zombie garb, collected canned goods for a local food bank at the registration tent. They also held a charity auction of horror movies, T-shirts and concert tickets, charging $1 per raffle ticket. The proceeds from the event totaled $250, which will benefit the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation Pittsburgh Branch.

A variety of tents were set up to sell zombie merchandise, including brains on chains, mugs, dolls and statues. Other tents offered photo opportunities with bloody prop weapons and housed live music from local rock bands.

The Zombie Fest also featured sub-events like a “horror scream” contest and Zombie Olympics, which included an event in which zombies threw artificial severed heads into a bucket. The winner of the horror scream contest had her scream used as stock audio for The It’s Alive Show.

Even if the point is to have fun, participants take the event seriously. People painted their skin gray or white, ripped their clothes and spattered fake blood on their outfits to sell the idea that they had become genuine-article undead monsters.

Many people came as zombie versions of archetypes, such as waiters or doctors, but others came as characters from popular culture, such as “Pirates of the Caribbean”’s Captain Jack Sparrow and Alan from “The Hangover.”

Some “generic” zombies added grisly make-up choices to their costumes, including saw blades, exposed bones and organs, missing eyes and torn flesh. One stroller included a fake severed head next to the young child inside.

Zombie nurse Mike Ziegler sported completely gray skin, a prosthetic mouth with exposed, decaying teeth and a hairpiece that flipped back to reveal a brain underneath. He said it took him three and a half hours to apply his make-up and prosthetics.

“It took me all week working with the latex to make the mouth. I probably spent a hundred dollars on all this,” he said.

Not everyone attended as a zombie. Some people came as zombie slayers, wielding Nerf guns, chainsaws and other bladed objects against the undead menaces.

The zombie outbreak even caught the attention of the Steel City Ghostbusters, who normally deal with phantoms and specters. But Ghostbuster Brandon Carnahan said the group handles anything paranormal.

“If we can destroy a giant marshmallow man, we can destroy a zombie,” Carnahan said.

Participant Jared Slodowick adjusted well to his new existence as a zombie.

“Mrrrrrrrrrrrrr,” Slodowick said in response to questioning about his current zombie state.

Tryc said that in Pittsburgh, zombies are popular because of the movies that have been filmed nearby, such as “Dawn of the Dead,” but she couldn’t identify what specifically makes zombies popular worldwide.

“It’s like pet rocks; no one knows why they’re cool. They just are,” Tryc said.