Family portrait V
(Zombie Walk in Kelvingrove Park: Glasgow, UK)
It’s lovely to see the people of Glasgow enjoying the parks in such a festive manner – taking advantage of dry, mild, autumnal days by decorating themselves and their children as the undead. In keeping with the Hallowe’en theme of recent news, I learned that the Zombie Walk first took place on Hallowe’en last year and seems to have already become one of the most attended dressing up events I have ever seen. Kelvingrove Park is one of the most central locations for all manner of festivals throughout the summer, but also for general public events all year round. Fitting then, that families dripping with blood and radiant with exposed shards of bone should congregate here for the start of the walk.
My friend Hamish and I (both of us living) wandered through the throngs of undead, gazing on sights that would have made my eyes water at this girl’s age. What struck me was the amount of families present; I wouldn’t immediately consider taking a child to a Zombie Walk, but perhaps seeing how their own make-up went on allowed them to be fearless in the face of such gore. Some couples had come as dead bride and groom, there were two morose children running around in torn, bloodied clothes with huge gashes on their arms and legs, one man had his entrails spilling over his trousers and there were even people with teeth running right up their faces. It was grotesque. We passed so many misshapen and writhingly jerky characters that by the time we were leaving the park, I had almost grown used to them. For anyone unaware of the event, the park must have been a rather disturbing and confusing visit.
Had I known about it a little earlier (and had I not already expended my efforts into a bunny costume) I imagine that being a zombie for a day could be very enlightening, as well as great fun. There’s always next year, I suppose.
– Today Rosie is processing calendars in Glasgow, UK –
