Last year, Julie Smith put on a ripped up 1950’s-inspired bridesmaid dress and applied fake blood, gashes and an excessive amount of eye makeup for her favorite event of the year: Zombiefest.
“I’ve been into horror for as long as I remember,” Smith said. “I grew up in Evans City where the opening scene for The Night of the Living Dead was filmed, which is probably a part of what got me interested. But something about the adrenaline rush of being scared has always attracted me.”
Horror enthusiasts throughout the Pittsburgh area flood to the David L. Lawrence Convention Center every year for the festival. This year, the eighth annual Zombiefest will be held on Oct. 11 from 12 p.m. to 10 p.m. Many people, like Smith, go all out when it comes to zombies.
There are plenty of Halloween events around Pittsburgh, such as haunted houses and costume contests, but nothing quite compares to Zombiefest.
“My favorite part about it is definitely the people. It’s a place where grownups can go to escape their boring adult lives and remember how to be kids again,” Smith said.
The first festival took place in 2006 at The Monroeville Mall, where Dawn of the Dead was filmed. This year, the admission price is $12 or $10 along with a donation for the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank. Children ages 6 to 12 are just $5, and children under five are free. The Straub Beer Company is sponsoring the event and will provide plenty of food and drinks for the living dead throughout the night.
The event has something for everyone—obstacle courses, dance parties, art and food vendors, “ugly pageants,” local bands and much more. In 2007, Zombiefest’s 4,800 attendees set the Guinness World Record for the world’s largest gathering of zombies.
Event Coordinator and Vendor Manager Angela Rocco said, “The growing popularity of the show ‘The Walking Dead’ has definitely changed our fan base. It brought us many new attendees and most of the new guests were college aged or younger. There’s also been a huge shift from everybody wanting to dress as zombies to many people wanting to be zombie hunters or in particular ‘Daryl’ from ‘The Walking Dead’.”
Rocco organizes the vendor portion of the event and also helps to promote it on social media. She is one of the cast members of the “It’s Alive” show, and during the event she is dressed as her character Hellga. She has been helping out with Zombiefest since 2010.
One extremely dedicated zombie enthusiast is Mike Kraus, who has participated every year since the festival began.
“I give complete zombie makeovers using airbrush stencils of things like cuts and veins to create a very realistic look,” Kraus said. “Last year I had a line of 20 people immediately after the doors opened”.
Kraus charges $10 for his gory transformations. He also has experience doing special effects makeup on several major motion pictures and independent films and hopes to one day open up his own special effects studio. When he isn’t turning people into zombies, he spends his time restoring old furniture and making other works of art such as wind chimes and incense burners, all which will be sold at the festival.
“I became interested in costumes and makeup around age 7, when I was very shy and felt that it helped me hide myself,” Kraus said.
In addition to doing makeup, Kraus will also be hosting “Zombie Ping-Pong” which includes ping-pong balls that look like tiny brains. The winning prize is a gothic style chess set that he made.
“The adult in me loves it because it is great business, but the kid in me loves it because it’s a time to just let loose,” Kraus said.
