150 people gathered in Northeast Minneapolis and went to six bars, starting at the 331 Club and ending at Psycho Suzi’s, who didn’t know they were coming. We didn’t have a website. We might have had a MySpace page though.
500 zombies gathered again in Northeast and went to a few more bars. A rival Pirate Pub Crawl was started, but quickly retreated when faced with the reality of a zombie horde getting blood all over their fancy pirate shirts.
Having outgrown Northeast, we moved to the West Bank neighborhood, starting at Gold Medal Park and ending with a big party at the Nomad. About 1,000 people showed up.
I’m not sure where that name came from. We almost called it “ZPC 4: Out the Door,” and “ZPC 4: Beach Party” was a strong contender. Anyway. 2,500 people showed up at the West Bank again. This is around the time when other cities started having zombie pub crawls.
We added the Cabooze this year to make room for more zombies. 5,000 people came, and it was generally mayhem everywhere.
This is the year we had to start selling tickets to the pub crawl to pay for security, cleanup, and a bunch of other stuff. We added block parties in downtown and the Cabooze. 14,000 zombies showed up.
You can also check out the ZPC 2010 Official Map, which turned out pretty rad.
We started running out of room to put all the zombies, so we invited St. Paul to the party. Andrew W.K. played in Mears Park, while 2 Live Crew played at the Cabooze. 25,000 zombies showed up.
You can also view the 2011 Preview Poster and the ever-awesome ZPC 2011 Official Map.
We moved the St. Paul party to Midway Stadium and called it “Zombie Island” for some reason. There was a full carnival for the zombies, fireworks, and building on fire. DMX played, although he showed up about four hours late. (What a jerk.) In Minneapolis, the Gin Blossoms played, and were actually really good. We had a bunch of metal bands and DJs and other stuff too.
Grain Belt Premium made a limited-edition beer called “Brain Belt,” we set the Guinness World Record for “Largest Gathering of Zombies” at Midway Stadium, and we introduced Phil, the world’s largest zombie (he’s 50′ tall from his waist up. He doesn’t have legs.) About 30,000 zombies showed up.
You can also take a look at the 2012 Preview Poster.
In 2013, the zombie horde was lured to a giant quarantined area in downtown Minneapolis using such bait as music (Sublime w/ Rome, Flock of Seagulls, and more), amusements (a giant LED ferris wheel), refreshments (Brain Belt beer), and food (the first-ever Brain-Eating Championships, ft Joey Chestnut, plus food trucks). We also invited Trick Daddy, Ying Yang Twins, and Bubba Sparxxx to the party, and added a “Trapped in the Closet Sing-Along” and a 6.66K zombie charity run as well.
Was “ZPC 9: Quarantine” the greatest zombie pub crawl in history? It was, until...
The Zombie Pub Crawl will celebrate its 10th year with the craziest zombie party yet. The bloody mayhem moves to Downtown's Warehouse District, and invites Steve Aoki, Juicy J, Sugar Ray, Flavor Flav, and a ton of others to join in the fun. Resistance Pro Wrestling will be on hand, as will Kobayashi as he attempts to beat Joey Chestnut's World Brain-Eating Record of 54 brain tacos in 8 minutes. Join the horde!
