Maine news, sports, weather from Portland Press Herald / Maine Sunday Telegram, Portland, Maine

October 26, 2012

Off Beat: The place'll be crawling with zombies

People looking like walking death will be pub crawling in Hallowell on Saturday, and a local dog rescue group benefits.

By Ray Routhier rrouthier@mainetoday.com
Staff Writer

Even the undead can appreciate a good beer.

Keep that in mind Saturday night, when you see lots of ghoulish, blank-eyed figures walking down Water Street in Hallowell. They may look like they want to eat your flesh and drink your blood, but really they're in search of a good pale ale and maybe a burger.

Rare.

Hallowell's Annual Zombie Crawl is basically a hybrid of the zombie craze (have you heard about Portland's zombie kickball leagues?) and the time-honored tradition among civilized beer-drinking folks known as a pub crawl.

So it's basically people dressed as zombies walking down Water Street and Front Street in historic Hallowell, stopping in any one or all nine or so participating pubs and eateries.

Yes, there are so many pubs in tiny Hallowell, it's almost scary.

But it's the sight of all those zombies walking down a street that will make you scream – or at least point and laugh loudly. The zombies will first appear as part of a parade at 7 p.m. Saturday, and they'll be around later during the pub crawling.

"Being on the street during the crawl is like stepping into a very odd movie by David Lynch. The energy is just vibrating as people have transformed themselves into the walking dead and really play the part," said Bruce Mayo, owner of Easy Street Lounge, one of the participating pubs. "I love that about Halloween. Everybody can play dress-up like we did as kids and interact with each other in this peculiar play."

But it's better, because as kids, we couldn't legally drink beer.

Mayo says that during the Zombie Crawl people do a lot of moaning and groaning, walking around yelling "brains, give us brains!" and stuff like that. Especially during the parade.

The Zombie Crawl began a few years ago as a fundraiser for a local dog rescue group, the Bully Underground Rescue Unit (www.bullynetwork.org). All proceeds from the zombie passes go to the group.

The zombie passes ($10) get you entered into a raffle for several prizes. You still have to buy your own drinks and food, but there will be drink specials.

"I think people like to have the chance just to dress up and escape for a night," said Mayo. "With this time of the year and all the politics being crammed down our throats everywhere you turn, it's fun to be someone other than yourself for a night."

A Zombie Crawl makes perfect sense, if you think about it. As kids, we walked from house to house in the dark spooky night in search of candy. Because candy is sort of the raison d'etre for kids.

But as adults, we're in search of lively conversation, music, good food and a good beer.

And if we have to tramp through the dark night screaming "give us brains!" to get those things, so be it.

Staff Writer Ray Routhier can be contacted at 791-6454 or at:

rrouthier@pressherald.com

Twitter: RayRouthier

 

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