The history of San Francisco zombie walks

Jacob Appelbaum’s photo of the dead train.

Don't just sit there. Go out and eat somebody.

San Francisco didn't invent the zombie flash mob. That was apparently our neighbor Sacramento, but our city has its long traditions of disregard for authority, systematic disorganization and freaking out the normals. We're a community who produces such creative insanities as that tiny desert party known as Burning Man, but until now, no compilation of San Francisco zombie outbreaks has existed on the internet.

San Francisco's first recorded mass undeading was July 30th, 2005. Around 75 corpses wandered down Grant Street, staggered across Union Square, through the lobby of the St. Francis Drake and ransacked the Apple store before lying bloody and motionless on a BART train headed for the graveyards of Colma and, according to some reports, finally returning to the Mission for burritos.

The now traditional elements were already in place. "Innocent" bystanders were attacked by the mob and transformed into fresh zombies to increase their numbers, and the group often wandered randomly, even splitting in half at one point. The day was an exercise in all the chaos that zombies embody.

Scott Beale of Laughing Squid catches SF's finest at work

The next major outbreak wouldn't come for over a year, but an event like this couldn't die so easily. On August 19th, 2006, Zombies paraded down Market Street back to their familiar munching grounds of Union Square and the Apple store, where they added their brain-eating mayhem to that weekend's Bandwidth Shindig. In fact, the Apple store has been included in virtually every zombie flash mob that's hit the city.

A third outbreak took place on May 25th, 2007, this time during Critical Mass and right after a pillow fight flash mob, but those three event were only the beginning. A couple named Brooke and Ben appeared as zombies that day and were actually married during the march.

And that October 11th, the zombies took the fun a few blocks down the road to the main library, the site of the Mayoral debate already in progress. If you keep your eyes peeled during this video of the evening, you'll spot perpetual protester and legendary local madman Frank Chu's comments on the proceedings.

Streaming down through the Chinatown gate en masse

The largest recorded zombie swarm to date happened on August 16th, 2008, starting at Yerba Buena Gardens at precisely 2:05 pm. They stopped traffic. They fought cable cars. They converted a group of Anonymous scientology protesters, wandered around a Falun Dafa protest against the Chinese government, through a Korean dance festival in Union Square and past a set of speakers blaring techno into the street, where the crowd moshed and chanted, "Brains! Brains! Brains!" to the beat of the music.

By the end of the scheduled route, three hundred and fifty zombies were left to wander the streets of San Francisco without direction of any kind. That's what the zombie mob is all about, and it remains the event to outdo. Video documentation can be found here and here.

For the most recent outbreak, this March 25th, the SF Zombie Swarm blog posted a map and a time but officially decreed there would be no leadership of the event. That week, San Francisco also happened to be hosting the annual Game Developer's Conference, and as the zombies streamed past the conference center, they clawed the glass and were handed a bunch of convention swag, but it was soon clear there were no real brains to be found. After searching the financial district, the zombies gave up on San Francisco altogether and reconvened at the after party in the east bay.

Events like these are designed to be a surprise, but when the zombies prepare to strike, some advance warning usually appears at SFZombieSwarm.com or Eatbrains.com. Be prepared and stay tuned for future outbreaks, and you too might become a part of the mayhem.