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This fall, the “living dead” will invade the Asbury Park boardwalk once again for the annual New Jersey Zombie Walk.

Now in its 6th year, event organizers will seek to regain the Guinness Book of World Records title of “Largest gathering of zombies” on Saturday, Oct.5, according to Tom Gilmour, the city’s special events coordinator.

“There was some doubt if it was going to happen, but it is and we are excited,” Gilmour said.

Originally held as the Asbury Park Zombie Walk in 2008, the event was renamed The New Jersey Zombie Walk in 2010. That same year, the walk set the record for the largest gathering of zombies at 4,093 on the Asbury boardwalk, according to the sites Facebook page.

The Zombie Pub Crawl in Minneapolis, Minn., holds the current record, with 8,027 participants, according to the Guinness World Record site. The record was set Oct. 13, 2012.

A representative from the Guinness Book of Records will be on site at the New Jersey walk to provide on-site certification should the record be broken, according to Jackie Pappas, executive director of the Asbury Park Chamber of Commerce.

“Our goal is to make a Guinness World Record that can never be broken,” Pappas said. “We’re shooting for 30,000. It’s a lofty goal,  but we think we can do it.” 

The October 5 date places the event 3 weeks before the anniversary of Hurricane Sandy, so event organizers have chosen “The Jersey Shore Lives” as the event’s theme.

“And what better way to celebrate that, than with the undead?” she said.

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Photo at top: Participants of the 2012 Zombie Walk dance to Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” on the Asbury Park boardwalk.

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