Zombie Bike Ride

October 20, 2018





Hutch





Zombie Bike Ride

This year marks the tenth year of yet another of my all-time favorite events in Key West, the ReCycle Bike Shop’s Zombie Bike Ride. Begun with little fanfare back in 2009 with a couple of hundred riders, the event has exploded into one of the most popular events of the Fantasy Fest week. With the new management team taking over Fantasy Fest last year, this event and the popular Tutu Tuesday party were assimilated in to the annual Fantasy Fest party.

Susannah



Kathy

Morgan and Effie

Shawn

Initially the Zombie Ride was started as something of a reaction against the direction that Fantasy Fest was heading, away from creativity and community and towards a more raunchy element, the event quickly grew to rival the biggest Fantasy Fest events with close to 10,000 costumed zombies taking to the streets, riding a path of about four miles from East Martello tower to downtown Duval Street.





Virginia

The organizers resisted overtures from the previous management of Fantasy Fest to become part of the official schedule but once the new management team signed on that had similar aims, they joined up and are now a proud and important fixture of Fantasy Fest.







Kathy and I believe so strongly in the event that we became official sponsors again this year as it is one of the best events not only of Fantasy Fest, but of the entire social calendar of the island. The main reason is because it is so damn fun. People from all walks of life, all ages including entire families create some of the coolest and most elaborate costumes of the week. Every face and body painter in town is called to duty to get the masses ready for the six pm start.









Literally thousands of people gather at East Martello where the body painters and other vendors are set up all afternoon to get people ready. A DJ as well as food vendors and the registration table are all on hand to get people signed up and signed in for the ride. The event draws a ton of locals but also an increasing number of tourists and is one of the Fantasy Fest events that readily includes young kids and families.







Everyone wants to be a Zombie and it is fun to have a great Fantasy Fest event that really focuses on creativity. There is little if any of the racier elements that are found downtown throughout the rest of the week. As the number of participants has grown, so too has the number of spectators lining the route. It has become must see viewing and like the Masquerade March, there are now any number of people along the route hosting viewing parties and the crowd in many spots in ten deep watching the cyclists.



Nadene, Trevor and Meredith

Kathy and Martina

Elle

We have attended all ten of the Zombie Rides, dating back to that small group back in 2009 when it seemed we knew almost everyone who was participating. We still know a large percentage of the people there, and I am constantly impressed as just how incredible this community is when it comes to creativity and the arts. There are some truly talented artistic people here and their costumes are a reflection of just how amazing they are.

Nick

Kristyn

Kate and Lea



I love going down in advance of the start to check out people as they arrive, as they get painted and as the numbers and anticipation grow. This year seemed to be the most crowded ever and the weather, while pretty hot, was not a limiting factor as people turned out in droves. Marky Pierson and his crew from Wonderdog Studios do a masterful job pulling off a truly huge and complicated event and deserve congrats and thanks for all their hard work.

Morgan







There is no way to truly describe the scope of the event, but it takes almost two hours for all bikes to just get started on their way downtown and once it gets strung out a little, it can take up to three hours for the entire group to pass by. Of course people are joining and making various stops throughout so it is sort of an organized chaos. Every year of late I have been surprised after the event to see photos of friends who I never even saw all night, even though I pretty much make the rounds through the crowd a times, there are just too many people to possibly see everyone. There are also too many photos for a single blog post so I am doubling this one up.







http://zombiebikeride.com/