Benjamin Stark, Staff Writer

From wholesome homecoming to zombie mayhem, many Augsburg students put on scary makeup and fake blood and joined over 18,000 other zombies at last weekend’s 14th annual Zombie Pub Crawl. Organizers moved the festival from last year’s downtown location back to North East Minneapolis where the crawl began.

   Over the years, the crawl has become a full blown festival. This year’s set included three stages with national headliners like ASAP, Ferg and Alison Wonderland performing. One of the more remarkable performances was former NBA basketball player-turned-DJ Shaquille O’Neal blasting dubstep to a crowd of undead beings. At 7’1”, Shaz was the second tallest zombie in attendance. Zombie Phil stood 50’ tall throughout the night. Alongside the live music, a food truck competition showed off the best fares in North East. I personally stayed away from the zombie-inspired dishes.

     This year’s new location came with a new set of challenges, the most difficult of which was the water. It poured rain for two weeks prior to the crawl, and the new location was situated on the East Bank. The production crew tried everything to remove standing water. Water pumps ran constantly as the festival approached. At one point, a helicopter flew low to try and displace the water. Although the giant flying fan didn’t help much, the combination of sunny weather and wood chips dried out most of the puddles.

  As the night went on, many zombies sought warmth in the neighboring bars. Elsie’s had a line outside starting at 5 p.m. Some bars hosted events inside, but space was much more limited. When the outdoor concerts ended, the zombie hordes dispersed. Oct. in Minnesota tends to do that. Waking up in the morning, the zombie dust had settled in the form of snow. Minneapolis went from a zombie city to a snow city! The first snowfall melted soon after, but more is surely on the way. Now that’s the scariest part of  Zombie Pub Crawl 2018!

This article was originally published in the Oct. 19, 2018 issue. 

Inflatable zombie consuming booze at Zombie Pub Crawl 2018. Photo by Ben Stark.