First of all a BIG thank you to everyone who participated and donated last Sunday. We had an amazing turn out and so far have been delighted by how much we made by gold coin donations alone. This year we tried to maximise the donations by limiting the entry points to Wickham Park, and our efforts definitely paid off. While we are still collecting money from fundraising groups, we are proud to announce we managed to raise over $24,000 for the Brain Foundation of Australia this year!

We would also like to thank the Queensland Police Service for their hard work and continued support of the walk. This year they have estimated the total number of participants of the walk (including photographers and the tourists who met us in King George Square and along Adelaide Street) at 15,000 – 20,000. The best bit though, is that there were no incidents reported and they have told us that this was the most well behaved walk yet. Congratulations guys, you’re the most well-mannered zombies in the world!

We are in the middle of the long and complex process of gaining the Guinness World Record of “Largest gathering of Zombies”. The current record is 4,093 participants set at the New Jersey Zombie Walk (USA). We can confirm we had approximately 10,000 in Wickham Park during the official countdown period. While we did have many more than 8000 people participating, a vast number of people did not turn up until just before 3pm and therefore were unable to be counted. This is one of the reasons why we ask people to come early so that we can have everyone safely into the park before the walk commences. Anyone who turned up after 2.45pm were not included in the official tally.

We also wish to thank all of our sponsors Crazy Contacts, Bifrost Studios, Beserk Clothing, 24 Hour Wristbands and TUH, as well as the venues around the Valley who sponsored us to become zombie-friendly venues: RGs/Ric’s/Bank, Birdee Num Num’s and Kaliber. We are also extremely grateful to the Tempo Hotel for hosting the official After Party again this year and for allowing us to have an all-ages section for our younger fans.

Also a very special thanks to: 123SEO.com, Generator Place, Lady Lex, The Horizontal Limousine Club, UBCS Umbrella Corp Security, mX, City News, Channel Ten, 4BC Radio, ABC Radio Steve Boyle, Samantha Lyttle, MyCause fundraising teams (Pickled Brains, Decay High, Eat Pray Zombie, Zombie Wedding Team, Nom NOM Brainz , The X-rayted Zombies, Dead on Arrival, Parklake Zombies, Team Zombie, Cerebrum Seekers), all other individual fundraisers, all the DJs and bands who played at the after party and all our tireless and wonderful volunteers.

While the walk this year was overwhelmingly positive, the Brisbane Zombie Walk has grown to a point where it has become increasingly expensive and time consuming to organise, a fact we feel needs to be passed on to everyone who took part in this years walk. Our usual expenses, such a Public Liability Insurance and police presence, increased significantly this year and we now need to obtain a special Entertainment Event from the Brisbane City Council which also means we must conform to a number of strict requirements which are also costly. We can only assume our expenses will continue to rise next year which means we have a lot of work ahead of us to cover these costs, on top of trying to raise money for the Brain Foundation.

The QLD Police have also advised that we will need to change the route of the walk next year due to the length of the walk. Many motorists found themselves stuck for over 45 minutes at some intersections which many found very upsetting, and understandably so. So while we love walking right through the Brisbane CBD and attracting thousands of tourists and photographers along the way, it has become apparent that we need to find a quieter route where traffic and public transport can be easily diverted. We may also need to find larger parks for the start/end points are we are getting much too big for either Wickham Park or Centenary Place. We will keep everyone posted on any changes as they are decided and will endeavour to keep the walk as close to the CBD as possible.

We will not be making any announcements about the 2012 walk until approximately March next year. Our next public event will be Supanova in April 2012 where we will have a stall for you to pre-register and grab any leftover merch. In the meantime don’t forget to buy a t-shirt from our e-shop, as we have quite a few left over and all of the proceeds will help cover the rising costs of next years walk.