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December 19, 2012

Going out in style: Zombie Walk set for ‘doomsday’ Friday

By DANIEL SUDDEATH daniel.suddeath@newsandtribune.com

NEW ALBANY — If some interpretations of the Mayan calendar are right, and the world meets its demise Friday, is there a better way to go than to be with friends enjoying a night of entertainment in downtown New Albany?

Better yet, how about a zombie walk and trolley hop to boot?

All that and more is in store, as 10 downtown establishments are participating in the End of the World Zombie Walk.

Matt McMahan, owner of The Irish Exit and The Warehouse Hookah Bar, headed the effort to organize the event. Two trolleys will provide free trips between the destinations for patrons from 8 p.m. to midnight.

Along with McMahan’s establishments, other downtown restaurants participating include Wick’s Pizza, Hugh E. Bir’s Cafe, River City Winery and the New Albanian Brewing Co.’s Bank Street Brewhouse.

McMahan said the event is somewhat patterned after a zombie walk that was held in Louisville last summer. The goal is to flood downtown streets with people dressed as zombies to match the theme of the event, he continued.

“It was real successful [in Louisville] and everybody dressed up ... we’re hoping everybody gets on board with that,” he said.

Some downtown merchants partnered for a trolley hop following the Light up New Albany ceremony last month, and McMahan said the service was quite popular.

“It wasn’t like a drunken bar ride,” McMahan said. “Some people rode the trolley three or four laps with me just looking at all the places downtown.”

The End of the World Zombie Walk is just another attempt to bring people downtown to enjoy the restaurants and businesses, McMahan said.

Downtown merchants often look for ways to boost business and by working together on events, they can help each other while providing entertainment options for the local community, he continued. There are many interpretations and theories on the Mayan calendar, but the most popular one entails a doomsday prediction. The ancient Mayan calendar ends Friday, and due in part to that culture’s obsession and skill in mathematics, many have forecasted the calendar’s finale was a prediction by Mayans that the world would end or at least begin to fall apart on that day.

But with Friday approaching, McMahan said he’s somewhat skeptical of the predictions. Around the world, McMahan just hopes no one does anything senseless Friday to try and bring to fruition a theory that may just be a misunderstanding.

“I don’t think it’s really anything big, but I don’t know. There’s a lot of people out there that think it is,” he said.

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